The Unequal Marriage Vasily Pukirev (1832-1890)

на картине изображен сам пукирёв

Картина без сомнения достойна того вознаграждения, которое получил В. Пукерев за эту работу. Меня она тоже потрясла выразительностью образов и передачей мыслей художников на хост во время написания картины. Да действительно на месте, где – на эскизах стоял возлюбленный невесты Варенцов, Пкерев на оригинале изобразил себя. Но все дело в том, что возлюбленный Варенцов сам попросил убрать его образ с картины, потому что он давно забыл про Софию, изображенную на картине, и готовился к свадьбе с новой невестой. В итоге – Картина – потрясает зрителя драматизмом, а в пояснениях к картине – это обычный брак богатого помещика, купившего себе невесту, как игрушку у ее родителей. Эту работу надо просто смотреть и восхищаться мастерством художника. Но такой драматизм – являлся – обыденностью для того времени. Картина конечно, вызывает эмоции и трогает душу, это произведение настоящего мастера образов, на которых и надо учится современным жанровым портретистам. Полный восторг!

Vasily Vladimirovich Pukirev can be called a genius of one work. The beginning of the artists creative path was marked by a masterpiece. It seemed that fame and universal recognition awaited him, but he never managed to create anything as profound and impactful as his first painting. Studying the authors subsequent works, one can notice how strikingly uniform they are and how different they are from other paintings of the second half of the nineteenth century. The work Unequal Marriage is an example of a true masterpiece that will be discussed by posterity for many centuries to come.

All the genius of this painting lies in the details. If you ignore them, the work becomes just a skillfully painted canvas. It is precisely the details that one must pay attention to in order to discover the true meaning of the work.

Of course, other artists known to modern viewers also depicted suffering young brides, calculating parents, and elderly wealthy grooms. In these works, everything was overly dramatic: clenched hands, tears, faces contorted with grief. But in this painting, one sees a genuine sadness, a real deep feeling, precisely at the moment when the priest puts the ring on the girls finger. Such unions were quite common at that time. For example, sixteen-year-old Anna Kern, to whom A. S. Pushkin dedicated the lines I remember a wonderful moment..., was given in marriage to a 52-year-old general.

There are details in Pukirevs masterpiece that disturb the viewer most of all. These are two old women, one of whom stands to the right and behind the groom, and the second peeps out from behind him. But what is so unusual about this? Could they be the grooms sisters? It is enough to pay attention to their appearance to suspect something amiss. Both old women have wedding wreaths on their heads, one of them is dressed in a white garment resembling a burial shroud, and the other stands behind the priest, violating church rules. It is not difficult to guess that these women are dead. After such a discovery, the scene depicted in the painting is perceived completely differently. The respectable posture of the priest tells us about the sacrifice that the bride makes, because she is not just marrying an old man; she is condemning herself to suffering.

The light in the painting, similar to the light in Caravaggios paintings, falls from above and to the left, indicating to the viewer the semantic center of the work. This is the helplessly reaching for the ring hand of a very young girl. The gazes of the characters in the painting also say a lot. Those same ruined brides look at the groom, everyone else is turned towards the bride, and the unfortunate girl has passively lowered her eyes. It is here that the viewer notices the figure of the artist himself, who depicted himself in his own painting. He turned away from everything happening with bitterness.

The further biography of Vasily Vladimirovich Pukirev was very unsuccessful. After selling his first masterpiece, he left Russia for several years, trying to escape a personal tragedy. This is not surprising, because the bride in the painting, Praskovya Varentsova, was the artists beloved. Pukirevs fate ended in poverty, oblivion, and alcoholism. The model herself was also not happy; she spent her last days in a almshouse.

Несомненно вещь потрясающая. Саветую копировать. Действительно, благодаря освещению напоминает драматические полотна незабвенного Караваджо👍👍👍🤝