The theme of the picture corresponds to the critical and ridiculing style of the works of Vasily Perov, who was one of the first to draw attention to the lack of rights of ordinary people of his time. The artist boldly reflected the truth in his paintings, ridiculing such immoral scenes, and confirmation of this is another picture of the arrival of a governess in a merchant's house, written by the artist in 1866.
The artist often observed when people are bought and sold, like a commodity, or even tritely lose at cards. The picture shows a merchant family, smugly looking at the governess girl who came to the service, respectively, not of her own free will and as it happened in a completely foreign family, where there is no nobility and understanding and any decency.
The well-fed merchant, who is also the head of the family, dressed only in a dressing gown, legs wide apart, arrogantly evaluates the governess modestly bowing her head, holding her necessary belongings in her hands.
Behind the back of the owner of the house, an obstinate, well-fed wife looks out with distrust with a desire to express various tricky questions, with incomprehensible and unexpected fear, they look at the newly arrived spoiled merchant's daughters.
The merchant's son, clasping his hands behind his back, obscenely looks at the girl with a smirk, expecting a stern and ordered conversation between his father, that is, the head of the family, with the governess who has arrived at their house.
The further difficult fate of the newly-made governess, apparently, is foreseen and understood by the people hired as servants, 
with ingratiating interest, they peek out from behind the door in anticipation of the usual formulaic phrases and instructions.
The picture The arrival of a governess in a merchant's house reflects the difficult customs and way of life of that time, where there is ignorance and a lack of education that does not color people. The conversation of the merchant's family with the new governess, as we see from the depicted types of the characters in the picture, is quite understandable and presumably will be short, strict and, accordingly, humiliating, with the obligatory fulfillment of all the whims of the head of the family and his family. A young and powerless girl in a hopeless situation, she understands that it will not be easy for her here, and she will have to endure various unfair tricks of these not noble personalities.
The plot is outrageously dreary and sad, but this is true of that time and similar scenes of the 60s of the 19th century could be seen in many families of this type. The picture is very close to the spirit of the famous writer Gogol, the plots of which he often described in his stories.
Today, the painting The arrival of a governess in a merchant's house is in Moscow in the Tretyakov Gallery, its size is 44 by 53 cm, it is painted on a wooden base.
January 2 (December 21, old style) marks 183 years since the birth of the outstanding Russian painter Vasily Perov.
His name is usually associated with famous paintings. "Hunters at rest" and "Troika", where other works are less known, such as, for example, "The Governess's Arrival at the Merchant's House".
Many interesting facts are hidden in the details of this picture.
I. Kramskoy. Portrait of V. Perov, 1881 |
Vasily Perov was often called the successor of the work of the artist Pavel Fedotov, with whose paintings Perov is related to the choice of acute social topics, the critical focus of his work, and the special significance of details that are invisible at first glance. In the 1860s each new picture of Perov became a social phenomenon, his works, revealing the ulcers of society, were in tune with the era of great reforms. The artist was one of the first to draw attention to the powerlessness of ordinary people of his time.
V. Perov. Self portrait, 1870 |
One of these works was the painting "The arrival of a governess in a merchant's house" (1866). Compositionally and stylistically, it is very close to the genre paintings of P. Fedotov, first of all, the echoes are noticeable with the Major's Matchmaking. But Perov's work is more tragic and hopeless. In 1865, in search of nature for the planned work, the artist went to the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia gathered and "peeped" the necessary types there.
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Sketch |
They seemed to have descended from the pages of A. Ostrovsky's works. These notable analogies sometimes even led to the accusation that Perov was secondary to the writer's artistic world. So, for example, I. Kramskoy wrote about this picture: “The governess herself is charming, there is embarrassment in her, some kind of haste and something that immediately makes the viewer understand the personality and even the moment, the owner is also not bad, although not new: taken from Ostrovsky. The rest of the faces are superfluous and only spoil the matter.
It is hardly possible to fully agree with the opinion of Kramskoy. The rest of the characters were by no means "superfluous". A colorful figure of a young merchant, the son of the owner, who stands next to his father and looks at the young lady without hesitation. Commenting on this picture, Perov spoke of "shameless curiosity" - this phrase characterizes the merchant in the best possible way.
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Fragment |
The merchant feels himself not only the rightful owner of the house, but also the absolute master of the situation. He stands with his hips akimbo, legs wide apart, his belly stuck out and frankly looks at the newcomer, well aware of the fact that from now on she will be in his power. The reception cannot be called warm - the merchant looks at the girl condescendingly, from top to bottom, as if immediately pointing her to her place in this house.
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Fragment |
In the bowed head of the governess, in the uncertain movement of her hands, when she takes out the letter of recommendation, one feels doom and, as it were, a premonition of future death, inevitable due to the obvious alienation of this poor girl to the dark kingdom of the merchant world. Critic V. Stasov defined the content of this picture as follows: "Not a tragedy yet, but a real prologue to the tragedy."
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Fragment |
On the wall hangs a portrait of a merchant, apparently the founder of this family, whose representatives are currently trying to hide their true nature behind a decent appearance. Although not everyone succeeds equally. The merchant's wife looks at the girl with undisguised distrust and ill will. She herself is clearly far from those “manners” and “sciences” that the governess will teach her daughter, but she wants everything to be “like people” in their family, which is why she agreed to let the girl into the house.
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Fragment |
In the left corner of the doorway crowded servants. They also look at the young lady with curiosity, but there is no arrogance on their faces - only interest in the one that will soon keep them company. Probably, the girl, having received a good education, did not dream of such a fate at all. It is unlikely that at least someone in this house understands why the merchant's daughters need to know foreign languages and high society manners.
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Fragment |
The only bright spot in the picture is the figure of the merchant's daughter, to whom the governess was invited. The pink color of Perov is usually used to emphasize spiritual purity. The girl's face is the only one on which, besides curiosity, sincere sympathy is reflected.
Painting *Arrival of a governess in a merchant's house* in the Tretyakov Gallery
Vasily Grigorievich Perov is not just one of the greatest artists of the second half of the 19th century. This is a landmark figure, standing on a par with such masters as I.E. Repin, V.I. Surikov, A. K. Savrasov. His work marked the birth of new artistic principles and became a milestone in the history of Russian art.
In 1862 V.G. Perov, a boarder from the Academy of Arts, left for Paris, where he improved his skills and, as he himself writes, "advanced in the technical side." At that time, many Russian artists who were abroad turned to genre scenes that resembled Russian reality. V.G. Perov then worked on the compositions "Feast in the Outskirts of Paris", "Organ-grinder", "Orphans" and others. But he does not stand the deadline set for him and asks the Academy of Arts to allow him to return to his homeland: "It is absolutely impossible to paint a picture without knowing either the people, or their way of life, or character; without knowing the types of folk, which is the basis of the genre."
Creative activity of V.G. Perov was closely connected with Moscow: here he received his education, and then lived and worked in this city. Entire generations of artists were brought up on the canvases of this master. Like the best representatives of Russian literature, V.G. Perov devoted all his talent and all his skill to the protection of the oppressed and disadvantaged, probably because the official authorities did not favor him during his lifetime. And even at the artist's posthumous exhibition, neither the Imperial Hermitage Museum nor the Imperial Academy of Arts, under the pretext of "no money," purchased a single of his paintings16. Official Russia could not forgive the great realist artist for his freethinking and open sympathy for the common people.
The painting "The Governess's Arrival at the Merchant's House", along with the famous "Troika", "Seeing the Dead Man" and other canvases, also depicts the plight of people forced by hired work to become humiliating all the time. In the 1860s, Russia was turning into a capitalist country, and the new master of life - a merchant, a manufacturer, a wealthy peasant - stood next to the former landowner, trying to snatch his share of power over the oppressed Russian people.
Advanced Russian literature sensitively noted the emergence of a new predator, correctly discerned its habits, its merciless greed and spiritual limitations. Vivid images of representatives of the "new Russian" bourgeoisie - all these Derunovs, Kolupaevs, Razuvaevs - were created by the great satirist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. In those same years, A.N. Ostrovsky denounced in his plays the tyranny of the Russian "masters of life." Following the progressive writers V.G. Perov turned his artistic weapon against the rising bourgeoisie.
In 1865, in search of nature for the planned work, the artist went to the famous Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia annually gathered. Trades took place here, contracts and deals were concluded, Russian merchants traded and feasted here.
Walking along the Volga pier, walking around Gostiny Dvor, visiting the shops and caravans of merchant ships on the Volga, sitting up in taverns where merchants carried out their business behind a pot-bellied samovar, V. Perov gazed intently at the appearance of the new rulers of life. And a year later, his painting "The arrival of a governess in a merchant's house" appeared at an exhibition at the Academy of Arts, for which he received the title of academician.
Everything in this picture looks unusual: a clean, bright room with lace curtains, gold stars on the wallpaper, garlands of greenery, polished furniture, a portrait of one of the representatives of the family. But the viewer immediately gets the feeling that; this is just a facade, a decoration, and the true life of the house reminds of itself with dark doorways and people huddled in them. In the center of general attention is a young girl, modestly but tastefully dressed in a dark brown dress and a bonnet with a blue silk ribbon. She has a reticule in her hands, and she takes out of it a certificate for the title of home teacher. Her slender, slightly inclined figure, graceful outlined in a thin line; the profile of the gentle face - everything is in striking contrast with the outlines of the squat figures of the merchant family, whose faces reflected both curiosity, and surprise, and suspicious hostility, and a cynical self-satisfied smile.
The whole merchant family poured out to meet the poor governess. "Sam" was in such a hurry to meet with the future teacher of his children that he did not even bother to dress more decently: as he was in a crimson housecoat, he went out into the hall. "Do not interfere with my temper" - is read in all his self-satisfied figure. Legs wide apart, the obese owner impudently considers the girl - as a product, the quality factor of which he wants to determine. There is something bullish in his whole appearance, endless complacency is poured over his entire corpulent figure and expressed in sleepy eyes, senselessly fixed on the girl. What kind of a merchant's son is, it is not difficult to guess from his cheeky pose and impudent facial expression. This future "tavern reveler" and womanizer cynically examines the teacher. Behind the merchant crowded his wife and daughters. The fat merchant's wife arrogantly and hostilely looks at the young governess, and the merchant's daughters look at the young girl with some kind of senseless fright.
It will be hard for an intelligent, educated girl in this family, and the viewer needs a little insight to guess: after messing around with merchant children for some time, she will run away from them, wherever her eyes look.
The canvas "Arrival of a governess in a merchant's house" was a typical painting for the 1860s, and not only in the work of V.G. Perov. Small in size, with a clearly defined plot, taken from life with all its ordinary peeping and eavesdropping details, this picture was extremely characteristic of the painting of those years. In the same years, the works of A. Yushanov "Seeing the Chief" and N. Nevrev "Torg" appear. V.G. Perov not only shaped realism in painting himself, but was also shaped by it, absorbed many of the artistic achievements of his contemporaries, but by the power of his talent raised these achievements to a higher social and aesthetic level.
In Fedotov's "Major's Matchmaking," the merchant was still fawning over the nobility, and his most cherished desire was to intermarry with an officer in thick epaulettes. In the painting by P. Fedotov, the merchant is depicted in a pose of still respectful embarrassment. He hurriedly puts on an unusual dress coat for himself in order to adequately meet an important guest. With V. Perov, the merchant and all his household feel themselves to be much more significant people than the intelligent girl entering their service.
The humiliation of human dignity, the clash of spiritual subtlety and well-fed philistinism, the merchant’s attempt to “bow down pride” are revealed by V. Perov with such fullness of sympathy and contempt that today (almost 150 years later) we take everything to heart, like the first viewers of the picture .
"The Arrival of the Governess" was often scolded for its dry color, and even A.A. Fedorov-Davydov noted: "One of the sharpest in terms of subject matter, impressive paintings by V. Perov, this last one, is unpleasant in a picturesque sense ... The tone of this picture is unpleasantly cut by the eye." But here the artist struck the viewer with his flowery Sophistication: black and purple, yellow and pink - all colors shine in full force. You just need to take a closer look at how the central group is colored, how softly, but definitely in color, the figures of the second plan are taken.
V.G. Perov died at the age of forty-eight. He was a man of sensitive soul and great mind, and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote a poem "In memory of Vasily Grigorievich Perov":
You were never a greedy craftsman,
A despicable merchant...
On a proud face
Selfishness is a desolate cover
Shameful shade never lay down.
And did not serve like a slave, you whimsical fashion ...
Painting *Arrival of a governess in a merchant's house* in the Tretyakov Gallery
January 2 (December 21, old style) marks 183 years since the birth of the outstanding Russian painter Vasily Perov.
His name is usually associated with the famous paintings "Hunters at rest" and "Troika", where other works are less known, such as "Arrival of a governess in a merchant's house."
Many interesting facts are hidden in the details of this picture.
I. Kramskoy. Portrait of V. Perov, 1881 |
Vasily Perov was often called the successor of the work of the artist Pavel Fedotov, with whose paintings Perov is related to the choice of acute social topics, the critical focus of his work, and the special significance of details that are invisible at first glance. In the 1860s each new picture of Perov became a social phenomenon, his works, revealing the ulcers of society, were in tune with the era of great reforms. The artist was one of the first to draw attention to the powerlessness of ordinary people of his time.
V. Perov. Self portrait, 1870 |
One of these works was the painting "The arrival of a governess in a merchant's house" (1866). Compositionally and stylistically, it is very close to the genre paintings of P. Fedotov, first of all, the echoes are noticeable with the Major's Matchmaking. But Perov's work is more tragic and hopeless. In 1865, in search of nature for the planned work, the artist went to the Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia gathered and "peeped" the necessary types there.
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Sketch |
They seemed to have descended from the pages of A. Ostrovsky's works. These notable analogies sometimes even led to the accusation that Perov was secondary to the writer's artistic world. So, for example, I. Kramskoy wrote about this picture: “The governess herself is charming, there is embarrassment in her, some kind of haste and something that immediately makes the viewer understand the personality and even the moment, the owner is also not bad, although not new: taken from Ostrovsky. The rest of the faces are superfluous and only spoil the matter.
It is hardly possible to fully agree with the opinion of Kramskoy. The rest of the characters were by no means "superfluous". A colorful figure of a young merchant, the son of the owner, who stands next to his father and looks at the young lady without hesitation. Commenting on this picture, Perov spoke of "shameless curiosity" - this phrase characterizes the merchant in the best possible way.
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Fragment |
The merchant feels himself not only the rightful owner of the house, but also the absolute master of the situation. He stands with his hips akimbo, legs wide apart, his belly stuck out and frankly looks at the newcomer, well aware of the fact that from now on she will be in his power. The reception cannot be called warm - the merchant looks at the girl condescendingly, from top to bottom, as if immediately pointing her to her place in this house.
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Fragment |
In the bowed head of the governess, in the uncertain movement of her hands, when she takes out the letter of recommendation, one feels doom and, as it were, a premonition of future death, inevitable due to the obvious alienation of this poor girl to the dark kingdom of the merchant world. Critic V. Stasov defined the content of this picture as follows: "Not a tragedy yet, but a real prologue to the tragedy."
V. Perov. Arrival of a governess to a merchant's house, 1866. Fragment |
On the wall hangs a portrait of a merchant, apparently the founder of this family, whose representatives are currently trying to hide their true nature behind a decent appearance. Although not everyone succeeds equally. The merchant's wife looks at the girl with undisguised distrust and ill will. She herself is clearly far from those “manners” and “sciences” that the governess will teach her daughter, but she wants everything to be “like people” in their family, which is why she agreed to let the girl into the house.
Vasily Perov. Arrival of the governess to the merchant's house.
1866. Oil on canvas.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
Vasily Grigorievich Perov is not just one of the greatest artists of the second half of the 19th century. This is a milestone figure, standing on a par with such masters as V.I. Surikov, His work marked the birth of new artistic principles and became a milestone in the history of Russian art.
In 1862 V.G. Perov, as a boarder from the Academy of Arts, left for Paris, where he improved his skills and, as he himself writes, "advanced in the technical side." At that time, many Russian artists who were abroad turned to genre scenes that resembled Russian reality. V.G. Perov then worked on the compositions "Feast in the Outskirts of Paris", "Organ-grinder", "Orphans" and others. But he does not stand the deadline set for him and asks the Academy of Arts to allow him to return to his homeland: “It is absolutely impossible to paint a picture without knowing either the people, or their way of life, or character; without knowing the types of folk, which is the basis of the genre.
Creative activity of V.G. Perov was closely connected with Moscow: here he received his education, and then lived and worked in this city. Entire generations of artists were brought up on the canvases of this master. Like the best representatives of Russian literature, V.G. Perov devoted all his talent and all his skill to the protection of the oppressed and disadvantaged, probably because the official authorities did not favor him during his lifetime. And even at the artist's posthumous exhibition, neither the Imperial Hermitage nor the Imperial Academy of Arts, under the pretext of "no money", purchased a single of his paintings16. Official Russia could not forgive the great realist artist for his freethinking and open sympathy for the common people.
The painting “Arrival of a Governess at a Merchant’s House”, along with the famous “Troika”, “Seeing the Dead Man” and other canvases, also depicts the plight of people forced by hired work to become humiliating all the time. In the 1860s, Russia was turning into a capitalist country, and the new master of life - a merchant, a manufacturer, a wealthy peasant - stood next to the former landowner, trying to snatch his share of power over the oppressed Russian people.
Advanced Russian literature sensitively noted the emergence of a new predator, correctly discerned its habits, its merciless greed and spiritual limitations. Vivid images of representatives of the "new Russian" bourgeoisie - all these Derunovs, Kolupaevs, Razuvaevs - were created by the great satirist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. In those same years, A.N. Ostrovsky denounced in his plays the tyranny of the Russian "masters of life". Following the progressive writers V.G. Perov turned his artistic weapon against the rising bourgeoisie.
In 1865, in search of nature for the planned work, the artist went to the famous Nizhny Novgorod fair, where merchants from all cities of Russia annually gathered. Trades took place here, contracts and deals were concluded, Russian merchants traded and feasted here.
Walking along the Volga pier, walking around Gostiny Dvor, visiting the shops and caravans of merchant ships on the Volga, sitting up in taverns where merchants carried out their business behind a pot-bellied samovar, V. Perov gazed intently at the appearance of the new rulers of life. And a year later, at the exhibition at the Academy of Arts, his painting “The arrival of a governess in a merchant's house” appeared, for which he received the title of academician.
Everything in this picture looks unusual: a clean, bright room with lace curtains, gold stars on the wallpaper, garlands of greenery, polished furniture, a portrait of one of the representatives of the family. But the viewer immediately gets the feeling that; this is just a facade, a decoration, and the true life of the house reminds of itself with dark doorways and people huddled in them. In the center of general attention is a young girl, modestly but tastefully dressed in a dark brown dress and a bonnet with a blue silk ribbon. She has a reticule in her hands, and she takes out of it a certificate for the title of home teacher. Her slender, slightly inclined figure, graceful outlined in a thin line; the profile of the gentle face - everything is in striking contrast with the outlines of the squat figures of the merchant family, whose faces reflected both curiosity, and surprise, and suspicious hostility, and a cynical self-satisfied smile.
The whole merchant family poured out to meet the poor governess. "Sam" was in such a hurry to meet with the future teacher of his children that he did not even bother to dress more decently: as he was in a crimson housecoat, he went out into the hall. “Do not interfere with my temper” - is read in all his self-satisfied figure. Legs wide apart, the obese owner impudently considers the girl - as a product, the quality factor of which he wants to determine. There is something bullish in his whole appearance, endless complacency is poured over his entire corpulent figure and expressed in sleepy eyes, senselessly fixed on the girl. What kind of a merchant's son is, it is not difficult to guess from his cheeky pose and impudent facial expression. This future “tavern reveler” and womanizer cynically examines the teacher. Behind the merchant crowded his wife and daughters. The fat merchant's wife arrogantly and hostilely looks at the young governess, and the merchant's daughters look at the young girl with some kind of senseless fright.
It will be hard for an intelligent, educated girl in this family, and the viewer needs a little insight to guess: after messing around with merchant children for some time, she will run away from them, wherever her eyes look.
The canvas “Arrival of a governess in a merchant's house” was a typical painting for the 1860s, and not only in the work of V.G. Perov. Small in size, with a clearly defined plot, taken from life with all its ordinary peeping and eavesdropping details, this picture was extremely characteristic of the painting of those years. In the same years, the works of A. Yushanov "Seeing the Chief" and N. Nevrev "Torg" appear. V.G. Perov not only shaped realism in painting himself, but was also shaped by it, absorbed many of the artistic achievements of his contemporaries, but by the power of his talent raised these achievements to a higher social and aesthetic level.
In Fedotov's "Courtship of a Major" the merchant was still fawning over the nobility, and his most cherished desire was to intermarry with an officer in thick epaulettes. In the painting by P. Fedotov, the merchant is depicted in a pose of still respectful embarrassment. He hurriedly puts on an unusual dress coat for himself in order to adequately meet an important guest. With V. Perov, the merchant and all his household feel themselves to be much more significant people than the intelligent girl entering their service.
The humiliation of human dignity, the clash of spiritual subtlety and well-fed philistinism, the merchant’s attempt to “bow down pride” are revealed by V. Perov with such fullness of sympathy and contempt that today (almost 150 years later) we take everything to heart, like the first viewers of the picture .
"The Arrival of the Governess" was often criticized for the dryness of color, and even A.A. Fedorov-Davydov noted: “One of the sharpest in terms of subject matter, impressive paintings by V. Perov, this last one, is unpleasant in a picturesque sense ... The tone of this picture hurts the eyes unpleasantly.” But here the artist struck the viewer with his flowery sophistication: black and purple, yellow and pink - all colors shine in full force. You just need to take a closer look at how the central group is colored, how softly, but definitely in color, the figures of the second plan are taken.
A special place in the artist's work is occupied by his small canvas "The Arrival of a Governess at a Merchant's House" (1866).
The plot of the picture, as always with Perov, is uncomplicated, and the dramaturgy of the work itself is based not on an open, external action, but on a conflict of states. The master paints colorfully, on the one hand, a merchant family with servants, who, as usual, slavishly plays along with their masters, and on the other hand, a governess, a modestly but tastefully dressed girl, whose whole appearance, for all that, betrays her by no means philistine, but all the more merchant origin. This biography is read not only in the image of the governess herself, but also on the faces of the household, for whom she is a person from another world. And therefore there is an element of distrust and even fear in the general reaction of people to the newcomer: what will she bring with her to their established foundations, born, perhaps, in a peasant hut.
It would seem that the essence of the conflict is obvious. But his social exposure is only the beginning, followed by the growing psychological severity of what is happening. Blushing in a blush from the awkwardness of the situation, from the unusually close attention to herself, the girl finally tries to pull out a letter of recommendation from her purse in order, among other things, to hide behind this action, to protect herself from the humiliating and shameless examination of her. From the heavy gaze of the owner of the house, for whom she is the subject of bargaining, from the lustful eyes of a merchant's son, from the household members, distrustful in their curiosity, on whose faces both surprise, and mockery, and even mockery are at the same time. And she stands, poor thing, in the middle of the room - lonely and defenseless in her shyness and meekness, under the cross fire of malevolence.
But the achieved psychological level of artistic narration is also not yet the final goal, but only a means to advance towards it. With just one, albeit small, but very expressive detail, Perov rearranges the semantic accents and thereby transfers the conflict into other areas.
In the interior of a prosperous merchant's house, given the patriarchal nature of the environment, the artist did not depict a single icon. Instead, in plain sight is a portrait of an ancestor, from which, probably, the prosperity of the family began. She prays to him, her benefactor, confessing only hypocrisy and pragmatism. And therefore, the fate of the poor girl is unenviable in the cynical, stuffy atmosphere of the house, where mirrors reflect only darkness and emptiness, where a young life can be wrinkled, like this shawl slashed with deep folds, which is carelessly thrown, casually, as unnecessary.
And, as if to complete the moral characteristics of the household, the artist depicts both the merchant family itself and its servants against a dark background. While the figure of the governess is projected by him onto the soft ocher, with a golden tint, the wallpaper on the wall, where extinguished candles turned white in the radiance of a gilded sconce. The staging of the figure of a girl on the floorboard, moreover, its lightest section, moreover, bleached out by the glare of folds, became a response coloristic move. Thus, the governess found herself in her own, special, coloristically built space, filled with light, before which both the shadow creeping on the left and the darkness that stretches from the inner chambers of the house recede. So the psychological confrontation develops into a struggle between light and darkness, where moral purity is opposed to cynicism. And here Perov makes another takeoff. Just as the darkness in his picture is not represented by a homogeneous mass, so the merchant family is not all hopelessly hardened in its hypocrisy. The daughter of the owner of the house, a teenager, is the only character from all households, written in bright, sonorous colors, standing out from the general color grayness and darkness. Everything in this girl - both the gaze fixed on the visitor, not curious, but amazed, and eyes wide open in amazement, as if they saw something that others do not see, and some still not conscious, barely restrained impulse betray the child's soul, already stretched to that purity, to that light that this stranger brought with her. Thus, an internal pairing of two characters arises - a girl and a governess, determining the temporal perspective of the artistic image of the picture.
