hut Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (1848-1916)
Vasily Ivanovich Surikov – hut
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Painter: Vasily Ivanovich Surikov
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One of Vasily Surikov’s most underappreciated works, Izba, was painted by him in 1873 and depicts a dilapidated dwelling resembling an ordinary country house made many decades or hundreds of years before the artist decided to capture it on canvas. We see in the picture a hut of people who did not live poorly, but also not rich. This house is very old and many times repaired, as you can see by the planks of varying freshness and patches on the roof.
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Description of Vasily Surikov’s painting "The Cabin"
One of Vasily Surikov’s most underappreciated works, Izba, was painted by him in 1873 and depicts a dilapidated dwelling resembling an ordinary country house made many decades or hundreds of years before the artist decided to capture it on canvas.
We see in the picture a hut of people who did not live poorly, but also not rich. This house is very old and many times repaired, as you can see by the planks of varying freshness and patches on the roof. Despite its old age, the chimney is intact, the roof does not leak, and the log building is rather slightly crooked and faithfully serves its owner. The path around the hut is treaded, and near it there are some kind of flowerbeds and even a sapling of a tree, which allows us to assume that someone else lives there.
What is the author telling us with his work? To begin with, the hut is intentionally portrayed in such a way that you can not say whether someone lives there or not, because the emphasis is not on that. Who could live in such a hut? Only an old man and an old woman, like the ones who lived in the dugout in Pushkin’s fairy tale, or just a widowed old woman... What is important in this is that in this gray old house elderly people live out their years, perhaps all alone.
If they have children, they no longer live in this old house, and most likely not even in this village, but far away in the city. And what will happen to this house when the old people are gone? How much work was spent on its construction and maintenance, how many generations grew up in this house, and how much it has survived? And will it all be forgotten, just like the hut itself? And how many such huts in this village, all over the villages, which, when empty, remain forgotten along with the history, the bearers of which they are...
Surikov painted his painting Izba almost a century and a half ago, but even now we realize that the painting’s call to remember and appreciate their history is still relevant today.
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The artist has paid considerable attention to depicting the materiality of the scene. The logs are not simply blocks of color but possess visible grain and irregularities. Similarly, the roof shingles are individually defined, creating a tactile quality that invites closer inspection. This meticulous rendering extends to the ground surrounding the hut, where patches of grass and weeds mingle with loose earth and debris.
The light source appears diffused, casting soft shadows and minimizing harsh contrasts. The sky is overcast, contributing to the melancholic atmosphere. In the background, indistinct shapes suggest a distant landscape – perhaps fields or other buildings – but these are rendered in a hazy manner, effectively pushing them into the distance and emphasizing the isolation of the hut.
Subtly, the painting evokes themes of transience and resilience. The structures evident decay speaks to the passage of time and the inevitable effects of nature’s forces. Yet, its continued existence – the fact that it remains standing despite its age – suggests a quiet strength and endurance. There is an absence of human presence; no figures are visible, which reinforces the sense of solitude and perhaps hints at abandonment or a life lived simply and close to the land. The overall effect is one of poignant beauty, capturing a moment in time that speaks volumes about the relationship between humanity and its environment.