Noon. Summer. 1917 Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939)

Description of Kuzma Petrov Vodkin’s painting "Noon".

We see a grandiose canvas. The artist was able to portray modern-day peasant Russia. It emerges as if from some miraculous haze. It’s simply impossible to cover the entire land with his eyes, it’s so huge.

The artist looks at the fields, hills, rivers and woods from a great height, it seems that he soars with the birds. From there Petrov-Vodkin contemplates Russia. The details of the landscape alternate measuredly. One picture succeeds the other. The people live and work in this vast land.

There is no cross-cutting subject on this canvas. It combines the phenomena and actions that are completely unrelated to each other outwardly. The viewer sees the peculiarities of peasant life. All of its phases, from birth to death, pass before us. If we take an individual person, all events occur in sequence. But if you look at the life of a huge nation, all events occur simultaneously.

The artist does not portray any one village, but the land as a whole, inhabited by a people. That is why he departs from external reality. The painter looks at the land from above. But the people are not depicted from above, but from the side. The people are completely unconnected by action. But they are all united by color and grand scale. With the gentle colors of the earth is harmonized the bright hue of the robes and sundresses. This color is characteristic of the people who inhabit this vast land.

The colors of the painting are slightly muted. They impress with purity and a special matte finish. It’s quite possible that this creation could be a mural of monumental character.

The artist unfolds in this masterpiece the immense theme of Russia. He demonstrates motherhood, love, people’s everyday life, and death. It is always noon in Russia. We are not faced with the reality that the artist sees from above or from the side. It is some kind of fairy tale into which the world is transformed.