The basis of any image is a drawing, so first of all we will understand its features.
There are two main types of image in a drawing:
a) linear, in which the three-dimensional form of objects - figures of people, animals, trees, etc. - is built only with lines; in the lines are outlined general outline and the structure of both the entire form of the depicted object as a whole and its main parts; this technique helps to convey to some extent and in a linear drawing not only general structure the depicted object, but also its three-dimensional form;
b) black and white, in which the volumetric shape of objects is transmitted not only by linear construction, but also by chiaroscuro. Parts of the depicted objects that are seen in nature as the most illuminated are left unshaded in the drawing. Less illuminated are transmitted in semitones, that is, somewhat shaded. Places that are in full shade are covered with thick shading.
most fully conveying reality and complex view A drawing is an image in which in one color (pencil, charcoal, pen, etc.) not only the volumetric shape of objects is expressed, but also their different lightness, the nature of their surface, lighting features and spatial relationships. Such a pattern is sometimes called tone.
These two main types of drawing can be found in more detail when working on a still life, a human figure, etc.
Within these two modes of representation there are many intermediate ones.
The drawing may have independent meaning- represent a finished work of art or be a preliminary sketch for further work in color. In the latter case, the drawing has an auxiliary meaning.
Etude
Every realist artist works daily from nature, that is, he draws or paints people, landscapes, or groups of objects. Such an image from "nature" is called an etude. The person or group of people that the artist depicts is called in this case a nature or a model.
There is a special profession of so-called sitters who pose for artists for several hours. But the artist, keenly interested surrounding reality, cannot, of course, be limited to some sitters. As a writer in notebook, so the artist puts on the canvas or in the album everything that excited and interested him.
The artist very often needs to collect materials in life itself for certain picture. Having accumulated materials, the artist proceeds to create a picture: he begins to rework his sketches, supplement and enhance some features, and omit others.
An etude can sometimes be considered as an independent work of art, for example, when an artist paints directly from nature with great force and expressiveness a phenomenon that interests him (for example, sketches of boys by the great Russian artist Alexander Ivanov).
That is why the artist must treat his sketches with care, reviewing them from time to time.
Sketch
Sketch, that is, a preliminary sketch future picture(poster, decorative panel, etc.), the artist performs not from nature, but on the basis of his ideas about reality. The main task of the sketch is to outline the solution of the plot scene in the picture.
Sketches can be of various kinds:
a) initial sketches, which express the first thoughts of the artist related to common plan future, works;
b) sketches in which the artist is working on separate parts of the future picture, for example, the location of individual figures and groups, etc.;
c) finally, before proceeding to the execution of the picture, the artist often makes the final version of the sketch, in which he produces, as it were dress rehearsal, the final check of the future solution of the picture. In such a sketch, all the materials obtained are already summarized: studies, sketches and previous sketches.
After such final version sketch, the artist is taken to painting the picture. However, even when starting a painting, the artist continues to process and refine all the elements that make it up.
What wonderful results a realist artist achieves by following this path can be seen in Fedotov's "Major's Matchmaking", Surikov's "Menshikov in Berezov" and Repin's "They Didn't Expect".
Dictionary of foreign words
etude[fr. étude]-
1) in the visual arts - a preparatory sketch for a future work or part of it, performed from nature;
2) instrumental music. a piece based on the use of a certain technical technique of playing and intended to improve the skill of the performer; in general - music. a piece of concert virtuoso character;
3) small work scientific, critical and other nature, dedicated to some. a separate issue;
4) in chess and checkers - a task to win or make a draw in a given position with a small number of pieces.
New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language. Author T. F. Efremova.
etude m.
1) A work of an auxiliary nature - a drawing, painting or sculpture - and usually not big size made from nature.
2) An instrumental piece of a virtuoso nature intended for concert performance.
3) Small literary work or scientific research on something. private question.
4) An exercise that serves to develop and improve the technique of some sl. art: acting, chess, music, etc. (usually improvised).
orthographic dictionary
etude et'yud, -a
Explanatory Dictionary, ed. S. I. Ozhegova and N. Yu. Shvedova
ETUDE, -a, m.
1. Drawing, painting or sculpture made from nature, usually part of a future large work. E. to the picture.
2. A small work (scientific, critical) on a particular issue. Literary e.
3. Musical composition virtuoso nature. Sketches by Rachmaninoff.
4. Type of exercise (in music, chess game). Sketches for beginners. Solve chess a.
5. pl. Drawing, painting with paints from nature for exercises, drafting sketches. Go to sketches. About app. etude, th, th (to 1. 3, 4 and 5 values).
Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, ed. D. N. Ushakova
ETUDE etude, m. [fr. tude from Latin. studium - diligence, diligence].
1. A work (drawing, sculpture, etc.), which is an initial sketch, sketch, which can serve as part of some. compositional whole. Study for a painting. Landscape sketch. Study of high relief. Go out of town for sketches.
2. The name of some works that are the result of some. research (book). Philosophical studies. Sketches about the style of Gogol. critical study.
3. Type of exercise (in music, in a chess or checkers game, etc.). Study for flute. Chess, checkerboard etude. (a task consisting in finding a way for White to win or draw with a given arrangement of pieces, in contrast to the "problem", which is called the task of finding a combination forcibly leading to black's mate in a certain number of moves). Solve the etude.
4. A small musical piece of a virtuoso nature (music). Etudes by Chopin. Piano Etudes by Scriabin.
F. Brockhaus, I.A. Efron. encyclopedic Dictionary
Etude(esercizio, exercice) - a musical exercise written with the aim of developing the technique of playing or singing. E. exist for singing (vocalise) and for all instruments and consist in the fact that a well-known technical figure is repeated at different degrees of the scale and in different modes. E. attached musical content and form. E. are written in a run-like manner or in a knee warehouse. In the era when polyphony prevailed, E. wrote for the development of polyphonic technique: inventions, toccata. For the piano E. wrote Clementi, Kramer, Moscheles, Kalkbrenner. There are E. (mainly in the field of the pianoforte), in which, in addition to the technical goal, artistic goals are pursued. Similar E. are not only in household use, but also on the concert stage, as for example. E. Chopin, Schumann (symphonic E.), Thalberg, Moscheles, Liszt, etc. Their forms are wider (song, rondo, variation, etc.). There are also E., intended not for the development of technology, but for the development of melodic phrasing, for example. E. cis-moll Chopin, E. Stefan Geller. N.S.
Modern explanatory dictionary
ETUDE(French etude, lit. - study), ..
1) in the visual arts, a work (usually preparatory) performed by the artist from life with the aim of studying it ...
2) musical piece instrumental character, based on a certain technique of performance and designed to develop the technical skills of the performer. Highly artistic virtuoso compositions of this genre, intended for concert performance, are also created (piano studies by F. Liszt, F. Chopin, A. N. Scriabin, etc.)...
3) In modern theater pedagogy an exercise that serves to develop and improve acting technique. It consists of various stage actions, improvised or pre-designed by the teacher.
Dictionary of synonyms N. Abramov
Painting, image, watercolor, panel, pastel, landscape, canvas, sketch, etude, head; mosaic. Wed<Изображение и Рисунок>. See view, image
“I realized a long time ago that for art historians, self-expression is more important than substance.”
Eldar Ryazanov
“Why should I, the son of a famous Moscow painter, who spent my childhood and youth among artists, whose collection contains more paintings and drawings than in any other regional museum, should listen to art historians, who never even held brushes in their hands?”
Alexander Gremitskikh
In Wikipedia, the term "picture" in relation to painting is defined as "a work of art that has a complete character (as opposed to a sketch and study) and independent artistic value." The concepts of “etude”, “sketch” and “sketch” in relation to painting are generally lumped together on Wikipedia and boil down to one concept - a sketch, preparatory material for the artist’s own painting.
Let's see if this is true in practice:
It must be said that all artistic terminology developed in the 19th century, if not earlier. In those days, not only here, but throughout Europe, decent people were supposed to speak exclusively in French, as evidenced by the terminology still used in painting. So the word "etude" comes from the French "étude", and "sketch" - from the French "esquisse", for example. The painters' customers lived mainly in very spacious, to say the least, rooms that required decoration with huge canvases, which, naturally, were impossible to paint from nature. It is clear that in such conditions only the final product was valued - a big picture (but, by the way, it was paid exclusively). Since the natural works, to which the sketches, in fact, belong, it never occurred to anyone to hang on the wall, it was impossible to get money for them, and therefore, if they were written, it was only as supporting visual material for some big picture and were even less important than sketches, which were carefully written out because they had to be submitted for approval to the customer.
That's where, from the "time of Ochakov and the conquest of the Crimea", long-obsolete definitions migrated artistic terms to Wikipedia! Yes, and in other dictionaries, alas, too, and from there - into our heads.
However, by late XIX centuries, with the democratization of society, views on what the final product in painting could be, so to speak, have changed dramatically. If a French Impressionists they still blamed the etude of their work, then A.K. Savrasov urged his students to "learn from nature." Of the Russian artists, Konstantin Korovin, for example, became famous precisely for his natural studies; he practically did not write thematic paintings at all. We are already living in the 21st century, but in relation to painting we continue to use the understanding of its terminology 200 years ago, a paradox, and nothing more!
The misunderstanding of the simplest terms of painting used in everyday speech, on the basis of such an ancient understanding of them, deliberately imposed on the general public by respected art critics, who, as it is quite obvious, precisely because they PROFESSIONALLY understand nothing in art, can put ordinary person into a dead end. Therefore, in this article I would like to consider the main commonly used terms in painting in relation to the current situation.
MEANINGS OF THE WORD "WRITE"(with the accent on the second syllable, of course)
In Russian, the word "write" has the basic meaning "to write letters and numbers." In painting, professionals use the word "paint a picture" as a term. If the artist says: "I painted a picture", then in this case he does not use professional terminology but just says everyday language, how ordinary people, unrelated to artistic activity. In the terminological sense, they draw with charcoal, sanguine, pencil, pastel, but not an oil painting. “This picture of the artist is painted in oil,” only a person who is far from painting can say. And there is nothing terrible in this, it is not so important. It doesn’t matter that you don’t know what red kraplak or cadmium yellow is and have never heard of some kind of umber or burnt sienna. Titles artistic paints, which accurately designate certain colors (after all, both red, and yellow and blue are different), it is absolutely not necessary for a non-specialist to know, and art historians do not encroach on such narrowly professional precise terms.
On the other hand, these gentlemen, "in charge of art", or, more simply, critics, that is, journalists writing on the topic of art, successfully imposed on all other people the false idea that art, they say, "should be understood." Who knows about art? Of course, no one but art historians!
Thus, we were successfully explained that in the fine arts we do not know and do not understand anything. And the most interesting thing is that we completely agree with this! Whom you will not ask: “I don’t understand painting”, “I don’t understand art” ..., and in this spirit.
And what is there, in fact, to understand? Art, including fine art, is created for us, ordinary people, and not for "specialists", it appeals to aesthetics, which is inherent in all of us by nature. In art, for the viewer, reader, listener, there are only two criteria - like and dislike. Will you read a boring book? Watching a bad movie or play? Will you listen to opera, music, a song that you don't like? Do you think Kazimir Malevich brilliant artist, and Velimir Khlebnikov - a brilliant poet? Not? Bravo! You are great at art!
But in order for you and me to be, as Peter I put it, “to recognize from other unknowing fools,” it is necessary, nevertheless, to clarify for ourselves a few common, often found in everyday speech terms related to painting in this case.
MATERIAL FOR THE PICTURE OF THE ARTIST
Non-professionals, at the suggestion of all the same art historians, usually believe that real picture oil should be painted exclusively on canvas, and other basics like artistic cardboard generally do not deserve attention. Then the Mona Lisa should not be considered a painting, because Leonardo used a linden board for his work.
Cardboard primed so that paints do not soak into it with a white compound, the so-called primer, consisting of chalk and glue, or colored primer, if the artist requires it, that is, special art cardboard, is surprisingly convenient for work, especially in the open air. Cardboard is a compact, rather dense material that does not spring under the pressure of a brush, unlike canvas. Under the influence of changes in temperature and humidity in the room, canvas sometimes sags, sometimes stretches, paints from it crumble over time, but not from cardboard. Painting on cardboard is as durable as the cardboard itself, and canvas even surpasses cardboard in terms of durability.
The same can be said about hardboard, although it is much heavier than cardboard. Soviet artists often primed the hardboard themselves, or even simply, in order to make it more convenient to write and the brush did not spring, they specially pasted the primed canvas onto the hardboard. There you are a prime example, still life with lilacs is quite picture size:
And what about the canvas? Exclusively with him artists Russian Empire worked until 1862, when the Russian industry began to produce artistic cardboard.
The canvas requires a heavy stretcher plus a good stretch of the canvas on it. At the same time, you have to wait a long time until the paint dries after the end of the work, otherwise the canvas cannot be rolled up, since the wet paints will stick together and the picture will be completely ruined. Paints can dry whole month. Here the artist begins a forced downtime. For transportation, the picture, if it is large, is removed from the stretcher, carefully folded onto a large babbin with the painting up so as not to damage the painting. The next stage - after delivery to the place, re-stretch the canvas on the stretcher, correctly, without distortions, wrinkles in the corners and sagging, but without excessive tension (all this can also damage the painting layer). And over time, a canvas stretched on a stretcher, under the influence of changes in humidity and temperature, can sag or, conversely, stretch too much, which can even threaten to tear the canvas. This, in turn, can cause the paint layer to flake off, ruining or ruining the painting. That's why in the halls and storerooms art museums so strictly monitor the constancy of humidity and temperature.
Artistic cardboard has many advantages. It is light, leaving for the open air, it can be placed in a special wooden frame with clips, which has a belt handle on top for carrying. An idea of this useful device is given by a drawing of such a frame for sketches, preserved in my father's papers, which my father ordered from some carpenter. Here's the drawing:
Sometimes the painter takes two cardboards with him to sketches at once. One is used first and then if
the lighting or mood has changed, or some other motive has attracted attention, the artist takes a second cardboard and writes on it already. Having finished the work, he turns the cardboards, still raw, inside the frame and fixes them with clamps. Cardboards do not touch each other. At the same time, the painting remains intact and unharmed. It will dry in the workshop.
Therefore, after 1862, when it was established industrial production primed art cardboard, painters gradually began to travel more and more to the open air with cardboard.
Gentlemen, art historians, who know nothing at all about all this, and have not written a single sketch themselves, are contemptuous of artistic cardboard, for some reason considering painting on cardboard to be obviously unfinished, proceeding only from the fact that mostly they are written on cardboard. etudes, which, as we shall see below, are always finished, carefully worked out works, often requiring very great labor. Moreover, the word "etude" was also invented, used as a synonym for unfinished work, negligence and ... incompleteness! But let me ask, what does the carelessness of execution or the incompleteness of the picture have to do with what it is written on? Yes, and there are no sketches on canvases, are there?
By the way, the painting is in the style of socialist realism Soviet artist Nikolai Ovchinnikov "In the shop", which in September 2016 V.V. Putin gave D.A. Medvedev is written on cardboard.
Strictly speaking, this is not a painting, but a full-scale study made by the artist directly in the factory workshop, but this terminology will be discussed below.
The most important thing is not the material on which the painting is applied, but how the artist managed to reflect reality, mood, his feelings and betray them to the viewer. The base material, whether it be canvas, cardboard, hardboard, paper, board or even thin galvanized iron, has nothing to do with it. Talent, experience, good art school. They say that in Abramtsevo S.I. Mamontov once changed the roof on the house. M.A. Vrubel picked up a piece of roofing iron and wrote lilac on it. So what now, this is not Vrubel?
Here is the “Portrait of Smirnova D.P., an employee of the Tryokhgornaya manufactory, a deputy Supreme Council USSR"
works of the Soviet artist Sergei Fedorovich Solovyov. It is also made on galvanized iron. The portrait, due to its more than modest size of 37.5x31.5 cm and such an official name, is clearly a real study for a large custom-made portrait of a production leader. Apparently, when the model came to pose in the artist’s studio, he didn’t have anything else at hand, so he wrote a completely finished small female portrait, which then, perhaps with some minor changes transferred to a large canvas.Sometimes, due to the then shortage in everything, Soviet artists wrote oil paints even on paper, which is not intended for this at all. So, in particular, sometimes my father acted. Then, after the death of my father, I had to stick this paper on cardboard. ("Snow fell" paper on cardboard, oil; 61.5x82; 1969)
Why, they even wrote on burlap from ripped sacks! And it worked out well!
Here, for example, is the work of the father "Chairman". Her story is as follows: her father received a business trip to one of the collective farms in Altai, somewhere near Biysk, with the task of writing the chairman there, the Hero of Socialist Labor. Naturally, there was no canvas on the collective farm, let alone a primed one, so my father ripped open some huge bag, pulled it on an impromptu, immediately knocked together stretcher, primed the burlap and painted a portrait of the chairman. Subsequently, already 50 years after the events, I had to drag this work onto an already normal stretcher.
Or here autumn landscape"Crimson Autumn", written by my father somewhere in a remote village, also using a similar technology:
Thus: IF YOU WRITE A HUGE MULTI-METER PICTURE, willy-nilly, you will have to paint it on canvas EXCLUSIVELY FOR SUBSEQUENT TRANSPORTATION, and not for it to be of artistic value!
In other cases, it doesn’t matter what to write on, otherwise the first ones bought by P.M. Tretyakov two ETUDE M.A. Vrubel ON CARDBOARD, no way artistic value did not represent.
STUDIES AND SKETCHES
An etude is, after all, whatever you say, quite finished, relatively small in size, namely natural work that is done in the open air (landscape) or, say, in a workshop (still life, portrait) and is quite independent work. However, sketches can also be used in the future to paint a large picture, sometimes even a huge multi-meter canvas, which is already possible only in the studio. A study, especially for landscapes, most often has dimensions, roughly speaking, not exceeding 60 by 80 cm, that is, a size convenient for carrying by one person. Here is an example of such a field study:
An etude can be one-session, written in one session, that is, in one day. But this happens quite rarely, much more often a study requires several, or even many sessions. A multi-session study, especially if it is a natural landscape, sometimes requires several years of work. This usually happens when the weather changes sharply and for a long time, and the desired state will now appear already next year. Well, for example, you write golden autumn in the bright sun, there are still a couple of sessions left, and then it rained for a whole month, involuntarily it will be necessary to come to this place next year.
In this way, etude is a natural work, a finished work of art, on which a fair amount of labor has been spent by the painter, that is, in everyday language, a finished oil painting of a relatively small size.
Of course, there are also unfinished etudes, but a multi-meter large picture can also be unfinished. So, as we see, the idea of respected art historians, which has long been outdated, has lost its former meaning for more than 100 years, is that an etude is necessarily something unfinished and of little artistic value, which, unfortunately, they have firmly invested in us in the head, and what is reflected, alas, even in dictionaries, today has not had the slightest foundation for a long time.
SKETCH
A sketch differs from an etude in that it is always done solely in order to prepare for a large thematic painting (a multi-figure composition on a particular topic. “Morning archery execution» Surikov, for example). Completeness is not always present in the sketch, and in this case it has the character of a sketch. Let's compare two sketches for large works by the Soviet artist Claudia Tutevol. In the first case, the sketch was made for myself, as a working material (Sketch for a panel for the Cosmos pavilion at VDNKh)
In the second case (Sketch of the ceiling plafond of the Abai Opera and Ballet Theater in Alma-Ata), the sketch was made for approval by the artistic council, as evidenced by the signatures and stamps in the lower and upper left parts of the sketch. Therefore, it is completely completed and finished, no sketchiness, i.e. there is no smell of negligence or incompetence here. In architecture, for example, this would be a model of the corresponding architectural structure.
A sketch for a painting can be a completely finished, and even carefully drawn or drawn, image of a hand, foot, ear, face, figure or head of a person, horse, dog, other animals, or even a tractor, truck, some object, or piece of clothing, everything in this moment the painter is interested in, in general, anything that can enter the future big picture artist. Moreover, all this can sometimes fit on the same piece of canvas, cardboard or hardboard.
Such sketches, sometimes unfinished, carelessly, hastily made, are also called sketches, that is, what the artist, in the process of designing a large multi-figure composition, “sketched” on a sheet of paper, cardboard, canvas, etc.
In addition, sketches are also called quick sketches made by the artist spontaneously, under the influence of the moment. An example is the sketch by V.G. Gremitskikh "Away" 25.5x17 paper, pencil; 1940s.
V.G. Gremitsky "Visiting" paper, pencil; 25.5x17; 1940s |
As you can see, the artist, on the very first piece of wrapping paper that came to hand, just like that, for himself, sketched with a simple pencil, also apparently tucked under the arm, the genre scene he is observing.
But the Moscow artist Igor Radoman painted my father, resting on a bed somewhere in the Akademicheskaya Dacha house of artists:
Artists on all sorts, numerous in Soviet time meetings and meetings in general, they were constantly bored, and were amused by what they were doing pencil sketches each other. I have many similar sketches by various artists in my collection.
A sketch can be made not only with a pencil, but also with oil paints, sanguine, pastel, charcoal, pen, and anything, even ballpoint pen because a true artist cannot live for a minute without his profession. For realist artists, this is just some kind of professional mania at the level conditioned reflex, requiring constant training, improving skills, which, in fact, distinguishes a real artist, who daily and hourly devotes his whole life to art, from the so-called "modern" artists and avant-garde artists who do not need to be able to do anything, and therefore no training is required - there is no skill, there is nothing to hone, know yourself to paint squares and triangles!
By the way, the sketch, depending on the time that the artist has to complete it, can also turn into a completely finished drawing. Here we have a completely finished baby portrait pencil "Volodya at the game" Murom painter Vasily Vasilyevich Serov, but nevertheless - this is a sketch!
Sketches are a help in the process of the artist's work on a large thematic picture. Sketches are made not only in oil, but also in charcoal or pencil, tempera, etc. In the sketch, in addition, the entire future large multi-figure painting of the artist can be arranged.
As an example, two sketches for a large thematic painting “Commanders civil war» Soviet artist Grigory Gordon, in fact, representing group portrait the most famous red commanders of the Civil War.
At first, the painter decided to simply line them all up against the background of a red banner,
but then such a composition seemed boring to him, and he decided to complicate it a little:
As you can see, in this case, the sketches are made in tempera, and in addition, despite the sketchiness of both works, i.e. incompleteness and apparent negligence of execution, all the heroes of the future big picture are quite recognizable. We clearly see Voroshilov, Budyonny, Shchors, Frunze, Chapaev, Parkhomenko, and so on.
And here is a sketch for a large thematic painting "The Arrest of Alexander Ulyanov" by the already mentioned Murom artist V.V. Serov:
Of course, the result is likely to be different from original intention. A true artist, as a rule, new thing does not go out of my head. He is constantly delving into the topic of interest to him. He ponders it, rethinks it, observes a lot, reads the relevant literature. If there is a landscape in the future thematic picture, corresponding natural sketches are written, which are subsequently, usually in a slightly modified form, transferred to the picture. Sometimes individual details from several full-scale studies are transferred to a large picture at once.
However, a full-scale study, unlike a sketch and a sketch, is, as we have already seen, an independent and necessarily completely finished work. Here's a prime example for you. Having received an order for a large thematic painting "Lenin and Gorky in Gorki", in the spring of 1952, my father made many trips to Leninskiye Gorki near Moscow and painted two large sketches there, both on canvas. First, Gorki. Spring. canvas, oil; 60x80 cm",
and then - “In the Lenin Hills, oil on canvas; 78.5x57 cm.
Subsequently, in the final large picture, the father took the second study as a basis, slightly pushed back the steps, and placed Maxim Gorky talking with Lenin in front of them. From the etude “Gorki. Spring." he took an earlier state of nature in the background, greatly reducing the landscape itself with the pavilion compared to central figures. Nevertheless, both studies, each in itself, is a complete independent park landscape, no different from his father's numerous other natural landscapes. If I had not told this story here, you, if you were at least three times an art critic, would never have guessed that both of these works were used to create a picture of socialist realism, right? So how can we say that sketches do not have a complete character and independent artistic value? (Recall the definition in Wikipedia).
A large thematic multi-figured picture requires a huge and lengthy work on it, the presence of a huge number of sketches and sketches. It is written exclusively in the workshop, often for many years. Take at least A. A. Ivanov from his big picture“The Appearance of Christ to the People” on which the artist worked for twenty years - from 1837 to 1857, or Vasily Surikov, who worked on each of his paintings for three to five years.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE OF A PICTURE FROM A STUDY?
Etude, being independent and completely finished artwork, differs from the picture primarily in that it is written from life. The picture is painted exclusively in the workshop on the basis of a huge amount of material - sketches, sketches, sketches, pencil sketches and photographs. Sometimes you have to study a large number of literature and periodicals, while the plot, that is, the theme of the picture, is invented by the artist himself, or dictated by the customer. And more importantly, the painting always embodies the PRELIMINARY INTENTION of the ARTIST, while the sketch is WRITTEN MOSTLY SPONTANEOUSLY - the artist takes the sketchbook and goes to look for a motive, i.e. the kind he will write. Wherever he saw, he stopped there and wrote.
There are no exceptions and sketches, written specifically to create large thematic paintings. In the case that I mentioned above, my father first found a gazebo in Gorki Leninskie, decided that he would place Lenin and Gorky in front of it, and only then painted two studies from nature with this gazebo.
Basically one can say that everything that is written from nature is an etude, be it a landscape, a still life or a portrait, and everything that requires a preliminary plan, long-term work with numerous and varied preparatory materials- This is a picture .
Definitely, a painting can be called an epoch-making canvas of a large, and sometimes simply huge size. There was such an artist Heinrich Ippolitovich Semiradsky. So he painted such large paintings that they were hung from the ceiling in the studio and reached the floor, and, mind you, this was far from happening in the Khrushchev. Therefore, the academician and professor Imperial Academy artists had to constantly climb stairs, such were his sometimes huge works. G.I. Semiradsky were mostly large fantasy paintings on antique themes, the plots of which he took out of his head, because real life Ancient Greece and Rome during the time of Emperor Nero to observe with his own eyes, he, of course, could not.
However, the picture can be quite modest in size, especially for genre paintings, that is, paintings by artists depicting everyday scenes. For example, the famous "Courtship of a Major" by Pavel Fedotov has a quite etude size - only 58.3x75 cm. But, as you yourself understand, it was clearly not written from nature right in the merchant's living room.
The historical picture in general is an exclusively fantasy thing. Both brothers Vasnetsov, for example, wrote on historical material, but very different. One recreated the life and architecture of Moscow in the XIV and XVII century, the other took the Russians as a basis folk tales and epics. But if Apollinaris, seriously, at the scientific level, who was engaged in history and archeology, was a member of various historical and archaeological societies, being a passionate supporter of the dissemination of knowledge on history, sought to recreate the life and views of medieval Moscow "as it was" on the basis of ancient documents and results archaeological sites, in which sometimes he himself personally took part, then the paintings of his older brother, Victor, were already purely fantasy in nature.
Battle paintings are in the same category. To paint them from life right on the battlefield, as some ladies from art history imagine, is simply ridiculous. The famous Russian battle painter V.V. Vereshchagin, who personally observed many battles, and sometimes even took a direct part in them, painted his paintings exclusively from memory, naturally in the studio, based on numerous sketches he made in theaters of military operations. In addition, Vasily Vasilyevich read a lot, interviewed eyewitnesses, spent a lot of money on props - he bought weapons, uniforms, equipment, which he then drew from nature, thus preparing sketches for the paintings that he conceived.
Large paintings depicting a landscape are also things not natural, but invented by the artist from his head and made on the basis of natural sketches. Once I happened to see a sketch, about 60 by 80 cm in size, on the basis of which I.I. Shishkin painted his famous large painting “Rye”, already 107 by 187 cm in size. The sketch was on canvas and depicted everything the same as in the picture, only the road did not go straight from the viewer to the pines, but somewhat sideways and the number of pines was different . In this case, the natural study clearly served as the basis for creating a large landscape painting, but in itself it is a completely finished and carefully crafted work.
Thus, one can speak not only of a sketch for a painting, but also of a sketch for a painting, if the sketch is written specifically for it. Most often this applies to the landscape. If I.I. Shishkin limited himself to the sketch mentioned above, and for some reason did not write a large work on it, now art historians would Tretyakov Gallery boasted of a picture of I.I. Shishkin "Rye" 60x80 cm, not suspecting that this is a study from nature.
LET'S SUMMARIZE:
A painting, unlike a sketch, necessarily requires the artist's preliminary plan, long reflection, and is always distinguished by the thoroughness of execution and decoration, so to speak, by being written out. A painting of any size is always painted by the artist in the studio on the basis of the most diverse material: photographs, preparatory sketches and sketches, and, if necessary, based on pre-written field studies. A picture, even a small one, and even more so large sizes, is always written not in the open air, even if it is a landscape (try to drag such a colossus with you into the field or into the forest!), But in the artist's studio. A large picture is certainly written on canvas, which is due to nothing more than the exceptional convenience of large canvases for transportation.
Thematic picture - as follows from the term itself, this is a picture on a specific topic. Most often it is a multi-figure composition of a large size. This term arose already in Soviet art history, so it is most often used for works of so-called socialist realism, for example, on the theme of the Civil, Great Patriotic War, or, say, "Lenin in October". Since the size of such works is often simply huge, the painter, of course, works on such a picture in his studio, and writes it on canvas. The Cossacks write a letter Turkish sultan» I.E. Repin, whose size is 2.03 by 3.58 meters, can in principle also be called a thematic painting, although there is no smell of socialist realism there. It was also written by Ilya Efimovich in the workshop on the basis of many sketches and sketches, as well as, for example, "Barge haulers on the Volga" (1.31 by 2.81 m).
Genre painting - the name comes from the French word "genre" - this is a work usually
small conversation piece can be made not only on canvas, but also on cardboard or hardboard. This material began to be widely distributed already in the 20th century.
There is also such a thing as genre portrait. Just a portrait is a portrait of a person on a neutral background, but when there is a background that depicts objects, people or even an industrial landscape that prompts the viewer, for example, the occupation of the depicted person, then this is already a genre portrait. An example is the genre female portrait "Veteran of Mining Labor" by the Soviet artist Claudia Alexandrovna Tutevol already mentioned here:
Etude, as we said above, is a completely finished independent work, but certainly natural. It is a completely independent work of art, but it can also act as an auxiliary material for a large picture of the artist, which by no means detracts from its artistic value. It can be still life, portrait, landscape, interior. The study, due to its relatively small size, is written on all of the above materials, but the main thing in it, of course, is the quality of the painter’s work, his ability to build a composition in a still life, reflect the character of the model in a portrait, convey the excitement or peace of the sea, cold winter forest, the beauty of a sunset, the charm of a golden autumn or the spring mood of nature in a landscape.
A sketch is an auxiliary work, its purpose is to fix the idea of the composition of the future
thematic picture. As an example, let's take a sketch for the painting "Virgin Lands" by E. D. Ishmametov. In it, the artist developed the composition and color, characters, poses of the characters, and then painted a large picture on this topic. The painter always thinks over the sketch for the picture very carefully. Usually, a sketch is characterized by a certain incompleteness, incompleteness. This is due to the fact that the artist most often does not need to finish it, here is another task - the development of options for the composition of the future picture, the refinement of its original design. Therefore, the sketch most often has the character of a sketch. But it can also be a completely finished, carefully drawn work, especially when the sketch is intended for approval by the selection committee, as we have already seen in the example of the ceiling sketch for the theater. Abai in Alma-Ata by Claudia Tutevol.A sketch, if it is done in the process of working on a picture, is also a purely auxiliary work, unfinished, not drawn in detail.
It is written or drawn quickly, but carelessness good artists does not happen in it. You can quickly write, say, the head of a model, which will later turn into a magnificent finished portrait, or you can make a quick sketch of some figure that may later be needed to create the composition of a large picture, and the sketch will remain an independent work, interesting for collectors and amateurs. Here, for example, is a sketch by V.G. Gremitsky "Dance":However, as we saw above, sketches can also be completely independent.
A sketch also usually has the character of a sketch, but a sketch is essentially a plan for a future picture, its entire composition, while a sketch for a picture is quick sketch something that can in principle be included in the future picture.
ABOUT SOME OTHER COMMON TERMS IN PAINTING:
Once I was very surprised to learn that staffing is “an oil painting without a clear drawing of the figures of people or animals.” In fact, staffage is small figures of people or animals, inscribed by the artist into the landscape to revive it.
Another term from landscape painting- tuning fork. This is a bright spot, contrasting in the general background of the landscape. Usually it's some sort of staffing. An example is the work of a Tashkent artist
V.M. Kovinina " Mountain landscape with the figure of a girl dressed in bright red national clothes.
It's strange when a canvas is called any oil painting, even a small size, and even written on cardboard. “Linen is a smooth and dense linen fabric of the simplest weave; the thinnest varieties were called cambric, the coarsest - canvas, canvas, equals, etc. (Wikipedia). Thus, the canvas cannot be either cardboard or hardboard, in relation to painting it is definitely a canvas.
In painting, paintings of huge sizes are called canvases, and usually on some epoch-making theme. Thus, we can say that only canvases came out from under the brush of Vasily Surikov, but Konstantin Korovin became famous mainly for his etude works. If Aivazovsky's "The Ninth Wave" can be fully called a canvas, then in relation to the already mentioned small work "Fresh Cavalier" by Fedotov, it will be simply ridiculous, despite the fact that it is also painted on canvas.
A little more about soils: What is gesso? This is a special primer, also based on chalk, which is used to cover a wooden board. Earlier in Western Europe pictures were often written on the boards, in Russia - icons, and always. This is extremely uncomfortable material. In Holland, at one time, the boards were dried for 50 years, only after that they were taken to work. Now artists rarely use gesso, since the paint, together with a thick layer of primer, easily chipped over time or from a light blow. Yes, and modern icon painters use it less and less.
In conclusion, I will give a few more illustrations for clarity:
The work of V.G. Gremitsky, which is called "Etude". This is, in fact, as the name implies, a full-scale one-session genre portrait of a worker, painted right at her workplace at the construction of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station.
And here is a genre portrait by the Tashkent artist Valery Kovinin:
This is clearly not a single-session portrait, here the artist clearly tormented his colleague, who served as his model, with the number of sessions, which is evident both from the careful writing of the work and from its size. But nevertheless this male portrait not a painting, but a multi-session natural study, which in no way detracts from its artistic value.
In proof of this last assertion, consider the famous female portrait "The Girl in the Sunlight". His cousin, Maria Simonovich V.A. Serov painted from nature throughout the summer of 1888, catching every sunny day (on cloudy days he painted the landscape “Overgrown Pond”). Preliminary design (we said above that famous artist was also absent, he just wanted, in his words, "to write something encouraging."
Thus, here we are dealing with nothing more than a typical multi-session natural study, written on a whim, at an instantaneous desire. Fortunately for P.M. Tretyakov, who bought this work, did not yet know that "A study - in the fine arts - is a preparatory sketch for a future work." (Wikipedia) Yes, and Valentin Serov showed an extreme degree of unprofessionalism, spending on some two preparatory sketches - a portrait of a girl and a landscape with a pond, as much as 90 days!
Many more similar examples could be cited, but I'm afraid I have already greatly tired the reader. I hope I still managed to make my modest contribution to explaining to the general public some of the most commonly used artistic terms, in which sometimes, to be honest, even the artists themselves get confused.
Alexander Gremitskikh
On the avatar: V.M. Kovinin "To the Sunday Bazaar. Karakalpakstan." oil on canvas 98x178. 1971 (This is a typical big genre painting)
The word "etude" is often found in books on art, at exhibitions, in art galleries. It means a work made from nature. visual arts usually small in size. Usually a sketch is created for the sake of a thorough study of nature - its shape, color, design, relationship with surrounding objects. In it, the artist develops the details of the future painting, sculpture, book illustration. Remember the famous sketches for the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People” by A. A. Ivanov or I. E. Repin’s sketches for “Barge Haulers on the Volga”, V. I. Surikov for “Boyaryna Morozova”, V. M. Vasnetsov for “Alyonushka”, P. D. Korina for the painting “Departing Russia”, E. E. Moiseenko for the painting “Mothers, Sisters”.
When an artist paints a picture in the studio, the sketch serves as that “living” material that helps him achieve the truthfulness and vitality of the work. However, the sketch is needed not only for reference in case the painter or sculptor forgets any detail. It is necessary from the very first stage of training to improve professional excellence(It is not for nothing that “etude” in French means “study”). The study is performed in oil, gouache, watercolor, tempera, pastel, and many other materials. Most often it is landscape, portrait, interior, still life.
But sometimes etudes take on a completely independent meaning. Therefore, in art galleries and at exhibitions they occupy a place on a par with paintings, sometimes even favorably differing from them in freshness, persuasiveness in the transfer of form and color. Some artists paint mainly sketches, but solve them like paintings, which is expressed in compositional completeness, expressiveness of form and color.
Unlike a sketch, a sketch is most often created by imagination, but based on observations of nature. It is done with a pencil watercolor paints, oil, pastel. In the sketch, the artist solves compositional problems: he is looking for the most successful format for the future picture, the compositional and semantic centers, rhythm, the nature of lighting, color scheme etc. He also develops individual elements: the gesture of a figure, the tilt of the head. Other sketches are just a few rough lines, but some come closer to the finished picture.
While working on a painting, the artist sometimes creates a huge number of sketches, gradually discarding everything superfluous, refining the composition, achieving expressiveness of the whole scene and each actor separately. These are the sketches of the brothers S. P. and A. P. Tkachev for the painting “Bread of the Republic for Children” and A. A. Plastov for “Haymaking”.
Work on sketches is combined with sketches: they complement each other, the artist's imagination and memory are reinforced by the study of nature. Often, having found the exact place in the sketch for his heroes, indicating their actions, characterizing each, the artist looks for people similar to them among those around him in order to paint them from nature, achieving life-like authenticity. But it also happens the other way around: the person you meet prompts the idea of creating a picture; the artist depicts this person, and then gives him new features that correspond to the plan and are refined in a number of sketches.
