Description of the painting by Surikov “The capture of a snowy town. About the folk Maslenitsa fun of capturing a snowy town

Take snow town

This work is one of the brightest positive pictures of Russian creativity and the unique work of the artist himself, where there are no tragic or conflicting moments. Surikov wrote it while in his native land, where there is a favorite game - the capture of a snowy city.

They built a city in a clearing or near a river on the last day of Shrovetide, organized its capture. One team protected the city, while the other, on the contrary, captured it. Undoubtedly, many people wanted to see it, and, of course, there were children among them. Such a performance was considered an idle performance, it was expected, prepared for it. People came beautiful, happy, in anticipation of the beautiful and charming. It was especially fun for the kids. All this can be analyzed in the artist's painting.

The time, which is devoted to this work, take place in snow-covered lands. Somewhere in the distance you can see snow-covered hills. In the center of the picture lined up a beautiful crowd, consisting of ordinary peasants. In fact, everyone looks with surprise at the rider in a huge hat made of sable fur. The rider breaks through the people who defend the city and are armed with twigs and sticks. His horse is reared up, slightly frightened by the number of people, and most likely also because he has to jump over a gap in the snow, breaking it with his hooves. Following the Cossack is a huge crowd of winners, everyone rejoices, rejoices, their hearts are calm and cheerful. Everyone understands that in the end the city will be destroyed, everything for these purposes it was built. Therefore, there is no sadness or sadness on the face.

The artist has always liked to depict a huge number of characters in the picture, and to give each character his own character, his role. For him, the clothes themselves, the posture, the look of a person were also important.

Composition description of the painting Capture of the snowy town of Surikov

Today, I want to consider a picture painted in 1891 by a true master of historical painting, Vasily Ivanovich Surikov. The story goes that the artist painted this picture, wanting to escape from the recent death of his wife Anna Sharet, and he quite succeeded. Vasily retired from the bustle of the people and began his brilliant work above the canvas.

Drawing brought him the desired relief, captivated and diverted from vile thoughts, in principle, this is logical, because the plot was taken appropriately. The picture shows the Cossacks, who frolic and play the old winter game. The essence of the fun lies in the fact that a certain fortress is being built from the snow, and supposedly the enemy must take it.

In the foreground, the artist placed a young, daring Cossack, riding a dexterous, powerful, black horse. The rider with ease and agility overcomes the obstacle in front of him, and the snow flakes scatter in a silver glow. Enthusiastic people stand around the protagonist, a crimson blush shines on people's faces, they are joyful and cheerful, they clearly liked such winter fun. Regarding the background, everything is calm, there Vasily Ivanovich depicted a calm and majestic landscape of winter mountains. I think that the picture cannot leave anyone indifferent and will certainly cheer you up, impressing the viewer with all the joy of the Russian winter.

• Composition Description of the painting Dinner tractor drivers Plastov

  An interesting feature is the rather schematic representation of the sky and the background landscape, which have almost no details. In particular, the sky is almost monotonous and blue is separated by an even stripe.

Taking the snow town

Taking the snow town- an old folk game. The game was part of the Maslenitsa celebrations. First described by ethnographer Johann Gmelin.

"Gorodok" was built on the river, or on the square of the city, village. Usually the "town" consisted of two walls with a gate between them. Walls of snow doused with water. The gates could be double in the form of arches - one opposite the other, with upper crossbars. Installed on the gates of snow different figures: most often it was a rooster, a bottle and a glass. F. Zobin reported that before the storming of the town, “In the past, a literate peasant near this town read some legend about Maslyanitsa, a gluttonous creature that destroyed a lot of pancakes, butter and fish.”

Men and young guys participated in the game. The participants were divided into two teams - the besiegers and the besieged. The gates were defended by footmen, attacked by horsemen. To take the "town" meant to destroy it. The besieged defended themselves with branches, brooms, and shovels covered the attackers with snow. Horses were scared away by blank shots from guns. The game ended with the obligatory destruction of the town. The first one to break through the gate was considered the winner. After the game, the winner was "washed" in the snow. The game often ended with fractures and other injuries, which was the reason for administrative bans.

In some villages, the order of the battle during the capture of the "town" was monitored by the "mayor", he also gave a sign to the beginning of the battle. In other places, a “king” smeared with soot drove up to the gates, who read a speech (sometimes naked), after which he signaled the beginning of the capture of the town.

AT simplified version game, instead of building a snow fortress, a vertical pole was installed, which was also called the "town". A bottle of wine, a scarf, a roasted rooster or a pig were tied to the top of the pillar. The pillar was lubricated pork fat. The winner had to climb to the top of the pillar and take the prize.

In our time, the assault on a snowy town is a common Shrovetide fun, but it takes place in a more humane form than in pre-revolutionary years.

Literature

• Krasnozhenova M. V. Capture of the "snow town" in the Yenisei province. Irkutsk, 1921.
• Avdeeva E. A. Essays on Maslenitsa in European Russia and Siberia, in cities and villages // Otechestvennye zapiski. SPb. , 1849.
• Gorbunov B.V. Traditional competitions for the possession of a snowy fortress-town as an element of Russian folk culture // Ethnographic Review. 1994.
• Gorodtsov P.A. Holidays and rituals of the peasants of the Tyumen district // Yearbook of the Tobolsk provincial museum. 1915.
• Zobnin F.K. Games in the Ust-Nitsynskaya settlement of the Tyumen district // Living antiquity. SPb., 1896.
• Novikov A. A few notes about the Siberian butter // Siberian living antiquity. Irkutsk, 1929.
• Siberian folk calendar in an ethnographic sense. Eastern Siberia. Yenisei province. Compiled by A. Makarenko. SPb., 1913.

Links

• Capture of the snowy town // Russian Ethnographic Museum

Categories:

• Pictures in alphabetical order
• Paintings from 1891
• Outdoor games
• Paintings by Vasily Surikov
• Russian rites
• Russian folk games

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

• Capture of Tbilisi (627)
• Take Tarantina

See what "The Capture of the Snow Town" is in other dictionaries:

Surikov, Vasily Ivanovich- Wikipedia has articles about other people with that surname, see Surikov. Vasily Surikov ... Wikipedia

Vasily Ivanovich Surikov- Vasily Surikov Self-portrait Date of birth: January 24, 1848 (18480124) Place of birth ... Wikipedia

Vasily Surikov- Self-portrait Date of birth: January 24, 1848 (18480124) Place of birth ... Wikipedia

Pancake week- "Shrovetide" ... Wikipedia

Surikov you. Yves- SURIKOV you. Iv. (1848 1916) painter, academician of the Academy of Arts (1895). Genus. in Krasnoyarsk, in a Cossack family. With the support of the Yenisei governor P. N. Zamyatin and at the expense of the gold miner, philanthropist P. I. Kuznetsov, he was sent to St. Petersburg, where ... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

Surikov- I Surikov Vasily Ivanovich, Russian historical painter. Born in a Cossack family. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1869-75) under P. P. Chistyakov. Active member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1893). ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Surikov Vasily Ivanovich- (1848 1916), Russian painter. He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1869-75) under P. P. Chistyakov. Member of the TPHV (since 1881; see Wanderers), the Union of Russian Artists. Already in the years of study, turning to historical painting, Surikov sought to overcome ... ... Art Encyclopedia

PANCAKE WEEK- Cheese Week, a winter national holiday that precedes Lent. The earliest Maslenitsa falls at the end of January, the beginning of February (O.S.), and the latest at the end of February, the beginning of March. The name "Maslenitsa" arose because on ... ... Russian history

snow fortress- The snow fortress is a temporary "fortification" structure made of snow and ice, an element of children's games in the upper latitudes in winter. At a temperature of about 0 ° C, snow has sticky properties, which makes it possible to build various ... ... Wikipedia

WINTER- Season between autumn* and spring*. Russia has the longest and coldest time of the year. Calendar winter three months: December, January, February. In fact, winter in Russia comes already in November and ends in March. In autumn, most ... ... Linguistic Dictionary

In 1890, Vasily Ivanovich Surikov, at the invitation of his younger brother Alexander Ivanovich, went to Siberia to Krasnoyarsk.

There, his family tried to diversify his stay at home with all sorts of celebrations. One of these events was the traditional capture of the "town" in Siberia.

At that time in the Krasnoyarsk province in the villages of Ladeyskoye and Torgashino, the “town” meant a fortress built of snow cubes with corner towers decorated with horse heads, fortress walls, arches and decorations, flooded with water and turned into an ice castle in the growth of a man.

The builders and the public were divided into: defenders - armed with twigs, snowballs and firecrackers; and the attackers, who, on horseback and on foot, tried not only to break into the territory of the "town", but also to destroy its walls.

When the artist, on the advice of his brother, looked at the holiday on Maslenitsa on the “forgiveness” Sunday, he set fire to the idea to write this event.

With the help of his younger brother and neighbors who knew and loved Vasily Ivanovich, several times in the village of Ladeyskoye, as well as in the courtyard of the artist's family, the action was staged. Thanks to this, Surikov was able to convey the expression so vividly and reliably unusual performance. The artist made numerous sketches and portraits, some of them can be considered completely independent works.

For example: a portrait of brother Alexander Ivanovich in a sable hat and fur coat, who is sitting in a sleigh facing the viewer; a sketch portrait of Ekaterina Alexandrovna Rachkovskaya in a scarf thrown over her cap, in a skunk fur coat and with a skunk muff, which entered the picture just like that. There, in a koshevoy with a bright Tyumen carpet thrown over the back, she sits and watches the horseman smash the wall of the "town" with his horse's hooves.

The rider - the artist painted from Dmitry the stove-maker, who built the fortress and, like a real Cossack, at a gallop strives to destroy the snow fortress. Each character was originally painted from nature and then included in the picture. This also applies to the painting on the arcs, the faces of the spectators, clothes, movements and the joy of being, the reflection of which lies on everything that happens. Having finished the painting in 1891, Vasily Ivanovich left for St. Petersburg and exhibited it at the 19th traveling exhibition.

The press was contradictory: praised and scolded. Praised for originality, for an unusual plot, for authenticity; scolded for the fact that the work did not fit any genre, for the variegation, for the ethnographic detail of the costumes, for the "carpet" of the image.

"The Capture of the Snow Town" was exhibited in the cities of Russia at traveling exhibitions, and only eight years later was bought by the collector Von Meck for 10,000 rubles. In 1900, the painting was exhibited in Paris at the World Exhibition and received a Silver medal.

Since 1908, "The Capture of the Snow Town" by I.I. Surikov can be viewed in the Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III in St. Petersburg.

Sketches for the painting "The Capture of the Snowy Town"

Introduction

Creativity of the largest historical painter V.I. Surikov (1848-1916) is comparable in scale to the legacy of such giants of Russian culture as A.A. Ivanov, M.P. Musogorsky, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky. "Historical clairvoyance", psychological depth combined in him with the elemental power and beauty of the picturesque embodiment.

The intense historicism inherent in Surikov is also explained by the fate of the artist, a native of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, who belonged to an old Cossack family and learned the character traits of “ardent-hearted” countrymen who kept ancient traditions in everyday life. Thus, when Surikov moved to St. Petersburg, where in 1869-1878 he studied at the Academy of Arts under P.P. Chistyakov, the contrasts and contradictions of the "two Russias" - national, soil and "European", St. Petersburg - became for him a personal problem. And it is no coincidence that my choice fell on Surikov's painting "The Capture of the Snow Town"; in terms of genre style, it seems to fall out of the rest of Surikov's works - this is the only work of the artist dedicated to everyday topics.

The purpose of the work is to analyze the genre, plot features of the picture. In this case, the analysis may consist in a broad consideration of visual means, compositional foundations that influenced the creation of the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town". All this is directly related to the tasks of the work, including the obligatory return to the roots, analysis of the influences and development of Surikov as an artist of folk life. Without understanding the environment in which the artist lived, it is impossible to understand the motives for writing works driven by him, therefore it is extremely important, I think, in the first chapter to briefly touch on Surikov's biography. It also seems important to me to pay attention to other canvases of the artist in order to trace the path of becoming a master, his progress towards “The Capture of the Snow Town”. It is necessary, moreover, for the full disclosure of the topic to touch on the visual means used by the artist, compositions. At the end of the work, I will try to sum up and draw conclusions on the studied issue.

As for the literature on this topic, it cannot be said that there is a lot of it. But each source is a professional reliable storehouse of hard facts and specialized information. So E. Bezizvestnykh in the book "Surikov and Siberia: an album" acquaints us with the figurative and stylistic features of Surikov's paintings, including the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town". The author of the book "Surikov's Childhood" N.P. Konchalovskaya touches on the origins of Surikov's growth as an artist, here you can see the basis of the master's storylines. You can also mention the works of Allenov M.M. "Vasily Surikov" and Kamenova V.S. "IN AND. Surikov. Historical painting 1870-1890. We find an interesting look at the artist’s work in V. Soloukhin’s book “The Living and the Dead Word”, where the author describes his impressions of Surikov’s works in non-standard language.

But it is impossible not to say about the great admirer of the artist's talent M. Voloshin. His essay about the master was first published in 1916 in the Apollo magazine, subsequently reprinted more than once. The most famous edition of Voloshin "Vasily Ivanovich Surikov" was published in Leningrad in 1985. A contemporary explains to us the inner world of the artist, his influence on the creation of paintings, including the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town". M.V. Nesterov argued that Voloshin's article on Surikov was perhaps the best that had ever been written about Russian artists. In the text of his monograph on Surikov, Voloshin introduced almost completely the artist's stories about his life, but significantly supplemented them with historical and critical judgments about the very nature of historical painting of the 19th century, about the specific features of Surikov's historicism, and, finally, about compositional principles realized in his seven large paintings. The monograph "Surikov" Voloshin considered one of his most serious and successful works.

In Krasnoyarsk there is the Surikov House-Museum, the same house where the artist was born and where he went to rest and work.

1. Analysis of the features of the work

1.1 The path to the creation of the "Snow City"

In order to analyze and accurately understand the structure and features of Vasily Surikov’s work (“The Capture of the Snow Town”), it is necessary to return to the origins of its writing, or rather, to the history of Surikov’s formation as an artist of everyday painting (and he has the only one). Thus, let us turn to the milestones of the master's biography.

Vasily Ivanovich Surikov was born on January 12, 1848 (old style) in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk into a Cossack family. With Yermak, his paternal ancestors came from the Don, from whom he inherited a proud, freedom-loving character. The mother was also from the old Cossack family Torgoshin. Peter and Ilya Surikov, as well as Vasily Torgoshin, are mentioned among the participants in the Krasnoyarsk riot of 1695-1698. Surikov was proud of his origin and wrote about it: "From all sides I am a natural Cossack ... My Cossacks are more than 200 years old." The artistic talent of his parents did not remain without a trace for him. His father, a passionate lover of music, played the guitar superbly and was considered the best singer Krasnoyarsk; mother, an excellent embroiderer, had an innate artistic taste.

The source of the formation of Surikov's concepts of beauty was Siberia, with the severity, sometimes cruelty of morals, with the courage of people, the prowess of folk games, which was directly reflected in the painting “The Capture of the Snow Town” that I was considering, with the “ancient Russian beauty” of girlish faces, with majestic nature , living breath of history. "Ideals historical types brought up Siberia in me from childhood, ”he recalled. Surikov's first attempts to draw also go back to early childhood: “... I am six years old, I remember it was - I painted Peter the Great from a black engraving. And the colors from myself: the uniform is blue, and the lapels are lingonberries.

Surikov was of medium height, strong, broad-shouldered, youthful. Thick hair with light brown grey, cut in a bracket, lay in a tight hat and did not seem gray. Rigid and short, they curled weakly in a beard and mustache.

In the appearance of a simple, folk, but not peasant, hardening was felt strong, steep: he was shackled in the north, in the Cossack way. His hand was small, thin, not thin. With beautiful fingers, tapering to the ends, but not sharp. The writing on the palm is clear, deep, solid. The line of the head is strong but short.

The first person to notice the boy was N.V. Grebnev is a drawing teacher at the Krasnoyarsk district school, from which Surikov graduated in 1861 with a certificate of merit. On the instructions of Grebnev, he copied engravings from the paintings of old masters, gradually comprehending the art of their time.

To support the family after the death of his father, Surikov was forced to serve as a clerical clerk. Sometimes, he later recalled, “I had to draw Easter eggs for three rubles per hundred”; once he made to order the icon of the Mother of God holidays.

Surikov's drawings attracted the attention of the Krasnoyarsk governor P.N. Zamyatin, and he petitioned the Academy Council to enroll Surikov as a student. A positive feedback about the work came from St. Petersburg, but with the proviso that no scholarship would be awarded. The wealthy gold miner P.I. Kuznetsov, an art lover and collector, who took on the costs of maintaining the young artist. In mid-December 1868, with the convoy of Kuznetsov, Surikov set off on a journey that lasted two months. Surikov was insufficiently prepared for the exams at the Academy. He entered the school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts to M.V. Dyakonov and mastered a three-year course in three summer months. On August 28, 1869, Surikov successfully passed the entrance exams to the Academy of Arts, he was accepted as a volunteer and enrolled in the head class. In the autumn of next year, he is already working on his first independent work, “View of the monument to Peter I on Senate Square In Petersburg".

Surikov studied at the Academy successfully, took everything possible from classes. The young painter's brilliant achievements were in composition; it was not for nothing that his comrades called him a composer. The development of the artist's natural data was largely facilitated by P.P. Chistyakov, who educated many masters of Russian art. At the Academy, Surikov successfully performed a number of compositions on ancient themes; This period also includes his painting from ancient Russian history"Prince's Court".

In April 1875, the artist begins his program work for the Big Gold Medal: "The Apostle Paul, explaining the tenets of Christianity before Herod Agrippa, his sister Veronica and the Roman proconsul Festus." The composition of the picture does not go beyond the academic canons, but it already shows an interest in the psychology of the characters. Surikov graduates from the Academy with the title of class artist of the 1st degree. When, six months later, as an exception, he received the opportunity to go abroad, he asked in return for permission to complete an order for painting the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Surikov carried out the preparatory work in St. Petersburg, only clarifying the necessary details in Moscow. Since June 1877, the artist finally moved to Moscow, having made frescoes depicting four Ecumenical Councils within two years. Surikov never wrote to order again.

In 1878, Surikov married Elizaveta Avgustovna Share, the granddaughter of the Decembrist P.N. Svistunov. Happy family life and relative material security allowed the artist to turn to the images of Russian history. The very walls of the ancient city seemed to speak. Images of the past arose in his imagination, an idea arose for a picture that seemed amazing to him. "Morning of the Streltsy Execution" is really amazing. But not by the horrors of death, but by the power of characters, the tragedy of one of turning points Russian history.

The architectural landscape with St. Basil's, which seemed bloody to Surikov, is not just a historical background, it is compositionally linked to the movement of the masses. The artist conveys the solemnity of the last minutes not only in the proud beauty of the Russian people, but also in that picturesque palette that has absorbed the tones of the dawn sky, the colors of the clothes and domes of the cathedral, the patterned arcs on carts and even the sparkle of wheel rims.

If in "Sagittarius" the tragedy of the masses is shown, which is made up of the fate of individuals, then in the film "Menshikov in Berezov" Surikov focused on one strong character, in whose personal drama there was an echo of the tragedy of Russia. No matter how purely everyday episode the knot of action of his future picture was suggested to Surikov, the image created in it acquires historical significance. A low hut, illuminated by the dim light of a candle, a tiny mica window is covered with bizarre frosty patterns. The huge figure of Menshikov is cramped under these low ceilings, in this hut. This strong and powerful person is accustomed to other scales of life. Three of his children are with Menshikov. All of them were to become the arbiters of the ambitious plans of their father. The situation is dramatic. And Surikov's talent helped to capture in her the beauty and subtlety of the manifestation of human feelings, to convey them in the guise of the heroes of the picture and the color system.

The first sketch of Boyar Morozova appeared in 1881; Surikov started directly to work on the painting three years later, having written “Menshikov in Berezovo” and having been abroad. This time, Surikov turned to the image of the associate of Archpriest Avvakum - F.P. Morozova. And again the tragic fate of the strong and passionate nature for the artist is inseparable from the fate of the people who opposed Nikon's church reforms. Surikov wanted to show how Morozova awakens various feelings in people, at the same time being the focus of these feelings. For the first time the picture appeared at the Fifteenth Traveling Exhibition and received the most enthusiastic assessment of contemporaries.

In 1891, Surikov in Moscow set to work on a new canvas, The Conquest of Siberia by Yermak. The people here appear in all the grandeur of their feat. The movement of the troops is directed by the legendary Yermak; his figure immediately stands out and at the same time it is inseparable from the Cossacks. Integrity, solidarity - a distinctive feature of the Cossack army. By contrast, Kuchum's army, which has been gripped by panic, seems disunited. Glorifying the courage of the Russians, Surikov also sees noteworthy features in the enemy camp, notes the original beauty of the “foreigners”.

The epic nature of the picture is determined not only by the significance of the plot (the moment of the collision of two historical forces), not only by the clearly conveyed movement of a huge mass of people, but also by the means of painting. "Suvorov's Crossing the Alps" naturally continues the theme of the military heroism of the Russian people, begun in "The Conquest of Siberia". The appearance of the painting at the Twenty-seventh traveling exhibition in 1899 coincided with the centenary of the Alpine epic. Surikov began working on the painting in 1895, and in 1898 in Switzerland, at the site of the famous historical crossing, he painted sketches for it.

The landscape of the picture: the peaks of the mountains going up, shrouded in a veil of clouds, sometimes dark, sometimes sparkling with a cold bluish sheen - allows the viewer to more acutely feel the difficulties of the transition, to feel the significance of the feat of Suvorov's miracle heroes.

Surikov worked for several years on his last large canvas, Stepan Razin. The picture was not easy for him, and the artist returned to it after the work had been shown to the audience. The picture strikes with a sense of freedom. She is beautiful with mother-of-pearl tints of colors, air penetrated by the sun's rays, and general poetry. The beauty of nature, as it were, emphasizes the heavy thought of the ataman, as if separating him from the drunken fun of the Cossacks. Obviously, Surikov's goal was to convey internal state this strong rebellious character.

The last created by Surikov historical image- the image of Pugachev; a sketch of 1911 depicting the leader peasant uprising imprisoned in a cage ... In 1912, at the exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists, Surikov's painting “Visit to the Princess convent". The historical and everyday character of this canvas brings it closer to similar works by A. Ryabushkin and S. Ivanov.

Surikov died on March 6, 1916 (old style) and was buried next to his wife in Moscow, on Vagankovsky cemetery.

1.2 The plot features of the picture

The art of Surikov the portrait painter is significant. First of all, these are wonderful sketches for historical canvases and the Snow Town. Let us turn in more detail to the genre and plot features of the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town".

At the beginning of 1888, the artist experienced a severe shock: his wife died. Surikov almost left art, indulging in grief. Evidence of the then condition of the artist is the painting "Healing the Blindborn", first shown in 1893 at a traveling exhibition.

Having written "Healing", Surikov for the first time after many sleepless nights fell into a deep healthy sleep. He dreamed of a distant Siberian childhood: how in the summer he rushed along the Yenisei rapids, and in the winter he took “snowy towns”. And, passing on a black horse through a snowy wall, with all my heart, with every cell of my body, I felt mad joy. Heeding the advice of his relatives, Surikov, together with his daughters, goes to Siberia, to Krasnoyarsk. “And then he moved from dramas to great cheerfulness,” the artist recalled. - I always had such jumps to cheerfulness. I then painted a household painting “They take the town”. Back to childhood memories... In the painting “The Capture of the Snow Town”, which appeared after three historical canvases, the direct sources of the artist’s great love of life, which helped to overcome grief and adversity, are noticeable. With this love of life V.I. Surikov endowed the heroes of his works. This only joyful picture of the artist symbolized his return to his origins. Having taken a sip of Siberian strength and freshness, he again becomes a Cossack.

Living in the winter of 1889 - 90 in Krasnoyarsk, observing the local winter activities, Surikov was carried away by the idea of ​​writing the Capture of a snowy town, depicting a favorite Siberian game in which the artist enthusiastically participated in his youth and which was now staged for him in the village of Ladeyki.

This game consists in the fact that through the wall of a snowy fortress, densely and beautifully built, with battlements and ice cannons, a horse with a rider must break through with his chest, which is prevented not only by a high, almost the height of a man, the wall of the fortress, but also from all sides. people surrounding the wall, shouting and using twigs, trying to frighten the horse and make it turn to the side. Surikov himself, in a conversation with Sergei Glagol, spoke about his painting as follows: “In the Snowy Town, I painted what I myself saw many times. I wanted to convey in the picture the impression of a kind of Siberian life, the colors of its winter, the prowess of the Cossack youth.

As always, people close and familiar to Surikov posed for the picture. In the kosheve, on the back of which a rich carpet with bouquets is thrown, with her back to the viewer, the artist's cousin Domozhilova is sitting in an ermine cape; next to her, in a dark fur coat, lowering her hand in the muff on the back of the sleigh and turning in profile, is a young Krasnoyarsk priest (the study Siberian Beauty was written from her). Sitting on the sleigh on the right is Surikov's brother Alexander. This is how this painting, unique in its nature in the work of Surikov, appeared. And it is not a drama that is depicted here, but a cheerful folk game, daring youth, ruddy girls, blood with milk. Their hair is wonderful, their eyes radiate a smile. An elegant carpet thrown over the back of the sleigh immediately creates a holiday mood. The pattern of the carpet, burning with its colors in the sun, together with the ornamented green arc, makes up the main colorful spot of the picture. The black-brown background of the carpet, raising the sound of color, is sharply separated from the delicate shades of snow and sky. The winter gamma, solemnly elevated in Morozovaya, in Gorodok sounds like a cheerful chime.

In the painting “The Capture of the Snow Town”, a new Surikov theme was born - the theme of a broad Cossack nature, the theme of heroism and strength, which unfolded in the epics of later historical paintings.

In order to understand the comprehensive figurative and stylistic features of the painting, it is necessary to go back into history and remember what the painting “The Capture of the Snow Town” is dedicated to. Long before the adoption of Christianity in Russia, our pagan ancestors had a custom - meeting spring in the month of March, to exile Death or Winter. Of all the ancient Slavic holidays Shrovetide is the oldest. Since ancient times, Maslenitsa has been called by affectionate names: wide, cheerful, yasochka, killer whale. “My soul Maslenitsa, your quail bones, your paper body, sugar lips, sweet speech, red beauty, Rusa braid, thirty brothers sister, forty grandmothers granddaughter, three mothers daughter, yasochka, you are my quail.” It has long been believed that "not to amuse at a wide Shrove Tuesday means to live in bitter misfortune and end life badly." Therefore, Maslenitsa was widely celebrated. It is not for nothing that the Russian proverb says: “Even if you lay down your little skirt, but spend Maslenitsa (Shrovetide)”.

Each day of the Shrovetide week has a special name: Monday - meeting, Tuesday - flirting, Wednesday - gourmet, Thursday - revelry, fracture, Friday - mother-in-law evenings, Saturday - sister-in-law gatherings, Sunday - seeing off, farewell, forgiveness day.

The whole week was celebrated cheerfully, separately. Shrovetide is rolling hills and swings, these are sweet dishes and buffoons, these are puppet booths, mummers, fisticuffs. We went to visit for pancakes, rode through the streets on horseback in a decorated sleigh. Folk fantasy in the invention of entertainment, fun and tricks in this fun party inexhaustible: instead of horses, a gang of mummers was harnessed to the sleigh train, a pole with a spinning wheel was erected on the sledge - a symbol of the resurgent sun. On this wheel they put a peasant with rolls, experienced in different kind festive pranks and watched with great interest what this man would "get up". Mummers walked, excited the people.

On Saturday, rituals were performed, symbolizing the struggle of Spring and Winter and the defeat of the latter. On this day, the children built a snowy town with towers and gates - the kingdom of Winter, which was to fall under the blows of Perun. Then they divided into two gangs, one of which guarded the town with brooms, and the other, armed with sticks, attacked it. After a long and stubborn struggle, the attackers broke into the gates and destroyed the fortifications, and the governor was bathed in the hole. This intensity of passions in this ritual game is vividly conveyed by V.I. Surikov in the film "The Capture of the Snow Town". Recklessly, mischievously celebrated in the old years Madame Boyar Shrovetide. They treated each other with pancakes and pies, drank “green wine”, rode the “trump sleigh”, played songs “in all the streets” and, finally, besieged and stormed the snowy fortress towns. They were built, it turns out, only in the Urals and Siberia - on the squares of small and large cities, villages, towns and villages ...

Usually the game of the fortress, according to contemporaries, lasted the whole of February. Both small and large participated in it. She was also popular in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Each Cossack army annually releases a certain amount of money for such a city. A round column, tapering upwards, is arranged on the square from clods of snow, like an ordinary haystack. Usually the height of the pillar is from 8 to 10 arshins, and in diameter at the base is 4-5 arshins. The walls of the pillar are made sheer. A flag is placed at the top. This snow pillar-tower is the town (fortress). A snow wall 2.5-3 arshins high is encircled around it, depicting a fortress fence. The capture of the town is usually preceded by horse races, running, trick riding and other entertainments. A small town is being built near the main town, it is for the Cossacks.

What the snow fortress looked like is presented in the famous painting by Vasily Surikov. And the capture of the snow fortress, and its siege, and the assault required courage, physical fitness, courage. It was necessary to attack its bastions in a wave, on command, climb the tower, take the defenders of the fortress “together”, tear down the fortress flag. Although the number of attackers outnumbered the defenders twice, taking the fortress was not an easy task. In addition to mounds of ice, snow pits, smooth ramparts, the besieged were also armed with "sims" - disguised rope loops for the feet of the attackers. The besieged fired at the chains with snow cakes, rolled huge snow balls from the ice shafts, poured loose snow from the bags on the heads of the attackers, burned straw. Usually the battle lasted until late afternoon and, as a rule, ended in victory for the attackers. Surikov told about such a victory in his picture, when courage, energy and joy declare themselves in full force, when the battle-war ended complete defeat fortresses.

The daredevil, who was the first to climb the tower, was offered a pancake, a pie, and a drink. He bowed to the old men and on his knees accepted from them the symbol of victory - the banner of the fortress. After that, the old people were supposed to say a word, and give parting words to “immature youths”, and treat themselves to “the hour to take”. As recommended by the rules, the "Sotskys" - the commanders of the detachments - did not immediately express their consent to the "feast-peace". Nevertheless, after lengthy and amusing persuasion, the matter ended amicably: all together, both winners and losers, sat down at a wide table. They drank wine and kvass, regaled themselves with various jelly and fish, indulged in pancakes and pies. And between toasts, conversations and songs, they asked for forgiveness from each other.

On Sunday, during the farewell to Maslenitsa, her effigy was burned with joyful cries and songs, thereby expelling Winter or Death. Thus, in his picture, Surikov captured part of the folk historical tradition.

In the early autumn of 1890, Surikov moved from Krasnoyarsk to Moscow. Finished in Siberia, "Snow Town" he brought with him, exhibiting it in the spring of 1891 at the Traveling Exhibition. The painting traveled with an exhibition throughout Russia, then was bought by a collector V.V. von Meck, from whom it was acquired in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

2. Internal analysis of the work

2.1 Pictorial means of painting

The visual means of the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town" are similar to the means of other paintings by Surikov, despite the genre peculiarity. The same can be said about composition.

Already in this picture, the remarkable merits of Surikov the colorist, whose pictorial searches were determined by the thoughts and feelings that owned the artist, appeared. Surikov subsequently wrote that all his faces appeared at once. And color paint along with the composition, because he lived from the canvas itself, and everything arises from it.

The strength of the emotional impact of all components of the canvas is striking: shape, color, linear composition. The picture is national not only in terms of the plot, which goes back to folk traditions, but also in terms of type, architecture, characteristic winter landscape, according to the interpretation of color, the sonorous clear power of which is akin to the bright worldview of the Russian people. Surikov managed to express in the magnificent painting of the "Snow Town" the spiritual emancipation, selflessness, enthusiasm and beauty of the Russian people. Here it is worth paying attention to the dynamics and development of the plot, - the main thing in the picture is movement, - the artist said.

In "Snow Town", remembering the fun of his Siberian childhood, Surikov portrays a nameless cheerful crowd in an old Cossack game. It would seem that the people here (for the first time in Surikov) are presented as a single, not split whole, but their prowess is unrestrained as destructive and formidable, despite the major brightness of the colors of a sunny winter day, a whirlwind.

In the picture, everything sparkles with fun, valiant prowess, sparkles with colors in the transparent winter air. The dynamics of the composition involuntarily draws the viewer into the space of the canvas. Stopping on the colorful carpet with which the sleigh is covered, our gaze then goes deeper, to the figure of the winner, embraces the crowd of participants festivities and again returns to the foreground.

V. Surikov in his picture widely used the whole range of visual means, thereby achieving the greatest expressiveness and strength in it, which, in the end, makes his work a work of art.

And there are 14 such visual means, namely: concept, composition, drawing, linear and aerial perspective, proportions of figures and objects, picturesqueness, color, light, tonality, flair, coloring, stroke, whole and detail, etc. All fourteen are present - true master, if less visual means are used, the caliber of the master is also less, or the caliber of the pictorial tasks is lower. Here, there is no doubt about the skill of Surikov. And if the picture is simply painted over with black paint, then this is not an artistic, but an ideological act of a marginalized person from art, an attempt to slap public opinion in the face. You can graduate from the faculty of art history, analyze such works, consider them a masterpiece, but children cannot be taught on such works. It will immediately become clear that "the king is naked." "The Capture of the Snow Town" in its composition is an ideal example of the proportionality and coloring of colors. In any case, minimally enough to help capable children open up, to instill in all children a sense of proportion and beauty, to correctly correlate expediency, natural conformity and cultural conformity in the perception of the viewer using the example of this picture.

The proof of this is the words of V.A. Soloukhin that "Snow Town" seems to be on the outskirts of everything else, tragic and essentially "bloody" art, although there is not even a speck of blood on any canvas - not like a Repin puddle on a multi-colored royal carpet.

Look: the execution of the archers, the noblewoman, who is still executed, the massacre of Yermak, the Suvorov soldiers, well, Razin is not a dove, and Menshikov ... And suddenly, against the backdrop of these grandiose historical canvases, some strange to the point of absurdity "The Capture of the Snow Town". If you linger in front of this picture for a minute longer, look at the light penetrating under the sled (under those on the right), admire the painted arc, look at the bright red sash - then move away from the picture until the museum time is over. And one can understand that "The Capture of the Snow Town" is perhaps the most amazing of all the paintings of Vasily Ivanovich Surikov, one of the most amazing works Russian painting. It is generally accepted that Surikov rested on the Menshikov in front of the Boyar Morozova and, in the same way, rested on the Snow Town before the mighty Conquest of Siberia.

snow town canvas miniums

2.2 Composition of "Snow Town"

Undoubtedly, the events of his personal life played an appropriate role. Here is a case when one can not be ashamed of a well-worn allegory: lightning suddenly struck a mighty stocky oak. Surikov was forty years old when he completed his third painting. His art rolled like huge ocean waves. Shaft behind the shaft. So far, the third one has rolled. The artist had everything: strength, consciousness of the correctness of the chosen path, beloved work, beloved family, beloved fatherland and a sense of blood, filial connection with him. Lightning struck not in the deadliest, but perhaps in the most painful place ... His wife died, a beautiful young woman, the one who sits at the feet of the disgraced Menshikov, wrapped in a sable coat.

Surikov was not only a large ship, but also a ship of increased buoyancy, because both his beloved work and his beloved homeland were by no means in last place for him. He was an obsessed artist, and love for his people, the feeling of the people were his main nature. Only for a while did he drop the brush from his hands. It was necessary to instinctively, involuntarily grab onto the wounded place. A year later, he goes home to Krasnoyarsk, as already mentioned above. His mighty mental reserves were set in motion and action. And here is the great mystery of human psychology in general and the psychology of creativity in particular. In the darkest and most painful period of his life, Surikov created the most life-affirming canvas. It's all like one continuous cry of joy, a flash of fun, laughter. This could only be created from an excess of both physical and spiritual health, suddenly splashing over the edge. Probably, the people to whom the artist turned, in the end, in a difficult moment for himself, really had a lot of such health.

With what love each face is written out: girlish, female, boyish, with what joy they all shine. And the carpet on the sled, and the ermine collar, and those colorful fur coats, scarves, sashes and pimas, and that bold seriousness on the face of the victorious rider! Beautiful, cheerful and prosperous people in the moment of their daring game - that's what "The Capture of the Snow Town" is, the visual means of the canvas and the composition.

One more speaks about the greatness of Surikov's talent in visual means. interesting fact. Our fashion designers spied something on the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town". Remember, in the foreground, the artist depicted a man in a red hat and felt boots embroidered with red and blue patterns? Now everyone can buy approximately the same felt boots from us. By the way, I would like to draw special attention to one person depicted in the picture.

If you look closely at the canvas of the great painter Vasily Surikov on the right side of the picture, you can see Nikita Sergeevich Mikhalkov sitting in a sleigh. That mustache, that facial expression - one to one. Everything is explained simply: Mikhalkov is very similar to the famous great-grandfather - Surikov, and many artists liked to capture themselves somewhere on background their canvases. So Vasily Surikov captured himself and his unknown great-grandson Nikita with him.

Now let's return to the painting again and take a close look at it in order to appreciate the other compositional and pictorial merits of this masterpiece. The carpet on the sleigh was painted in V. Surikov's painting "The Capture of the Snow Town" in 1891, when they were very popular. Carpet weaving is called by specialists as a heavy craft. Siberian carpets were once very popular in Russia. A bright black field, over which huge red, purple poppies and roses are scattered - that was the carpet woven by a Siberian peasant woman. Such carpets have long gone out of fashion today, and many secrets of carpet weaving have already been lost. Although the craft still exists, there are very few craftswomen left, as they say, you can count on the fingers.

The scale of the work is also striking. The height of the painting is 156 cm, and the width is 252 cm, which allows us to perceive the canvas as a single figurative plot, as if to merge into what is happening.

Conclusion

On the one hand, it is easy to draw conclusions and results on the written work, on the other hand, it is extremely difficult and time-consuming due to the uniqueness and genius of the painting “The Capture of the Snow Town”. Summing up, it is necessary, firstly, to note that this work is the only canvas by Vasily Ivanovich Surikov, dedicated to everyday life. This is the uniqueness of the picture, if we consider it within the framework of the entire creative heritage of the master.

Secondly, Surikov is perhaps the first artist who turned to the national, one might even say pagan historical spiritual experience, that is, to culture. This refers to the Maslenitsa holiday, one of the episodes of which is so colorfully depicted in the painting “The Capture of the Snow Town”.

Thirdly, it is impossible not to note the colorfulness and colorfulness of the canvas, the dynamics and movement that fill the picture.

And finally, I will give my personal opinion on this topic. Sometimes you forget and look like a fairy tale: you never know what you can draw! But Surikov, who without life did not write either a sledge snake, or a wanderer's staff, or a squeak, or a powder flask, he could only leave us a document, and we have no reason to doubt the authenticity of Surikov's document. That is why I consider this picture also historical, like all the other paintings of this painter.

And in conclusion, I would like to return to our days, to the village of Sukhobuzimskoye. Here, quite recently, a presentation of a new painting by Krasnoyarsk artists dedicated to Surikov took place in the Museum of Local Lore, artists performed, and a contest of essays for high school students was held. The guys specially prepared for the anniversary of the great fellow countryman, studied literature about him, his works, having learned a lot about the early years of the artist in the village of Sukhoi Buzim, which inspired him to write the painting “The Capture of the Snow Town”.

And in Krasnoyarsk, a monument to the brilliant painter was opened near the Surikov House-Museum. It was erected at the expense of the city and Russian Academy arts.

Bibliography

1. Allenov M.M. Vasily Surikov. - M., 1996
2. Bezsvestnykh E. Surikov and Siberia: an album. - Krasnoyarsk, 1995
3. Vilyuk M. Orenburg downy shawl // Tyumen news. - 07.05.2002.
4. Voloshin M. // Apollo. - 1911. - No. 6-7.
5. Voloshin M.A. Surikov. - L., 1985
6. Voloshin M.A. Vasily Ivanovich Surikov. - L., 1985
7. Dmitrienko A.F. 50 biographies of masters of Russian art. - L., 1971
8. History of Russian art. Ed. I.A. Barteneva, R.I. Vlasova. - M., 1987
9. Kamenov V.S.V.I. Surikov. History painting 1870-1890. - M., 1987
10. Konchalovskaya N.P. Surik's childhood. M., 1984
11. Minchenkov Ya.D. Memories of the Wanderers. L., 1980
12. Nesterov M.V. From letters. L., 1968
13. Russian art. Essays on the life and work of artists of the second half of the 19th century. In 2 vols. T. 2. M., 1971
14. Soloukhin V.A. The word is alive and dead. - M., 1976
15. Sternin G.Yu. Russian art culture second half of the 19th - early 20th century. M., 1984
16. Surikov V.I.: Letters. Memories of an artist. - L., 1977
17. Tretyakov Gallery. Guide. M., 2000

Tutoring

Need help learning a topic?

Our experts will advise or provide tutoring services on topics of interest to you.
Submit an application indicating the topic right now to find out about the possibility of obtaining a consultation.

The watershed in the life and work of Surikov was the death of his wife. The artist's grief was so great that he practically stopped writing and left for Siberia to stay there forever. Alexander Ivanovich Surikov, the painter's brother, trying to help, suggested to him the theme of this painting.

Alexander Ivanovich Surikov, younger brother painter, helped Vasily Ivanovich in Krasnoyarsk fill the time with vivid impressions, almost daily tried to arrange rides around the city on horseback, in the evenings he invited friends and acquaintances: the game). I really wanted him not to give up his art after the death of his wife. We went with him to the village of Ladeiskoe, where we hired young guys to make a town, from which it was written in last days carnival of 1890, the painting "The Capture of the Snowy Town".

And she cured Surikov of longing, opening a new stage in his work, distinguished by polyphonic composition, richness of color, and immersion in the folk element. “Then I brought extraordinary strength of mind from Siberia,” Surikov admitted to M. Voloshin. The work depicts an old Siberian game, very popular among the Cossacks - it was played on "Forgiveness Sunday", the last day of Shrovetide. The artist's childhood impressions also reminded of themselves here: “I remember,” he recalled, “how they took the“ town ”. Snow town. And a black horse right at me ... I then inserted it into the picture. I'm a lot" snow towns"I saw people on both sides, and in the middle a snow wall. Horses with twigs - whose horse is the first to break through the snow. During the work of this picture, Vasya began to miss his wife less; in a word, to some extent he came to his senses, began to visit, and we had acquaintances. With my mother, I always remembered the old fashioned way.

As usual, Surikov painted many details from life - the painter's friends staged a full "option" of the game in the village of Ladeyskoye especially for him.

The topic prompted by Alexander Ivanovich fell on fertile ground. Depicting the contemporary scene folk game, Surikov, based on the generally accepted classification, worked in the everyday genre, for all that, the peculiarities of the thinking of the historical painter affected here in full force.

In the canvas sparkling with festive colors, everything is permeated with the living traditions of the ancestors, the daring Cossacks, with whom Surikov was so proud of direct family ties. The picture shows climax- the snow fortress is falling apart before our eyes. The rider and the horse are embraced by a single impulse, prowess and passion sparkle in the rider's resolute gaze, wild sparks flash in the horse's intelligent eyes. Against the background of the laughing faces of the spectators, the will of the Cossack taking the town, gathered in a single impulse, attracts attention, makes you experience the sharpest moment of the game with him.

Fragments of the painting

The bright sparkling landscape painted in the background echoes the image of the people, full of health and strength, presented in this work.

The participants of the game, who selflessly surrendered to it, greet the winner, laughing and waving twigs - the main "tools" of this fun.

Surikov wrote the horse and rider in the most difficult perspective - they rush straight at the viewer. The image was not given to the artist for a long time - “five times,” as A.I. Surikov, - they made a town in their yard and called a Cossack, who, whipping a horse, flew to the town.

This character was written by Surikov from his brother, Alexander Ivanovich. He, sitting in a decorated wagon, is watching the game with interest. A wonderful sketch in oil “A.I. Surikov in a fur coat”, made for the painting. (50 artists. Surikov: Masterpieces of Russian painting. 2010, issue 8. / Author of the text Alexander Panfilov. - M .: De Agostini LLC, 2010. - 31 p.)

Source: Moskalyuk M. “The light shines in the darkness…”./ Marina Moskalyuk.// Tobolsk and all Siberia. Eighth number. Krasnoyarsk: Almanac. / Comp. M.V. Moskalyuk. - Tobolsk: Publishing Department of the Tyumen Regional Public Charitable Foundation "Revival of Tobolsk", 2007. - 340p. – p.76-96

... At the beginning of the 20th century, Maria Vasilievna Krasnozhenovoyg managed to restore its complete picture from the words of former participants in the game. The wall of snow and ice was built in advance, and each locality had its own "architectural" features of the building. In the Yenisei province, double gates in the form of arches were widespread. The players were divided into two groups: the defenders, armed with rattles, twigs and clods of snow, and the besieging young Cossacks on horseback. Numerous spectators from the surrounding villages gathered, dressed up, excited by the upcoming spectacle. The "mayor" went out, loudly reading the playful verses "The Beginning and Arrival of the Past Carnival", and suddenly suddenly gave a signal, according to which the assault began. The horsemen broke through the crowd of frantically defending defenders, the horses reared up from the noise and hard blows. The spectators greeted the losers with salty jokes, but the winner was honored with all their hearts, pulled off the horse, generously treated to wine.

Among the Cossacks, who carefully guarded the fighting traditions of their ancestors, "The Capture of the Town" was associated with the memory of the conquest of Siberia under the leadership of Yermak. In the European part of Russia, by mid-nineteenth centuries, such customs have become ordinary children's fun. The last real “Gorodok” in Krasnoyarsk was arranged in Ladeyka in 1922, and during the childhood of Vasily Surikov, “Gorodki” in the village of Torgashino, where the artist’s mother Praskovya Fedorovna was from, was famous on a special scale: “And my first impression is like from Krasnoyarsk to Torgashino in winter they traveled across the Yenisei ... It was on the other side that I saw for the first time how they took the "Gorodok". The crowd was. And a snow town. And the black horse jumped right past me, I remember. It’s true, he stayed in my picture.”

In terms of picturesque merits and emotional intensity, "The Capture of the Snow Town" rightfully belongs to the best creations of Surikov's brush. By the time the picture was painted, Surikov was already an established master, with well-established techniques for creating a large canvas.

An interesting conversation recorded in 1926 by Krasnozhenova with a 6-year-old peasant in the village of Ladeyki M.D. Nashivoshnikov, who well remembered the artist who depicted him in the crowd of spectators: “He painted all these pictures. And at first he would collect all the materials, write everything separately, and then he would start distributing them on a piece of paper - someone is much more dexterous ... After all, God will give talent to a person. In these ingenuous memoirs, the main feature is noticed creative method Surikov - careful work on sketches and endless search for the most accurate compositional constructions.

In general, compared to other canvases, not so many etudes have been preserved for The Capture of the Snow Town. The picture was painted from beginning to end in his native home, and only Krasnoyarsk residents could pose - numerous acquaintances and relatives, Torgashinsky and Rook Cossacks.

... So, in the brightest and most spacious room of Vasily Ivanovich's home, a large canvas was stretched. A new creation of the great master was born here, while Muscovites and Petersburgers were sure that Surikov was silent, as the newspapers of that time wrote. And for the first viewers of the Krasnoyarsk people in the depicted scene, everything was close and familiar, and the joy of recognizing themselves was sincere.

However, time passed. The painting was rolled up on a shaft and together with the artist went to Moscow. In almost every letter of 1891 to his brother and mother, Surikov mentions her: “I put the picture in a gold frame. It's very beautiful now. Soon, in early or mid-February, they should be sent to an exhibition in St. Petersburg. I don't know what impression it will make. I, brother, have not yet shown it to anyone.

"The capture of the snowy town" was expected by an eventful fate. Immediately after the Х1Хth traveling exhibition Together with other paintings "Gorodok" traveled across Russia, from St. Petersburg to Moscow, then to Kharkov, Poltava, Elizavetgrad, Chisinau, Odessa, Kyiv. In 1900, the painting entered the World Exhibition in Paris, where it received a silver medal. Since 1908, it has been kept in the Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III. A separate story could be her return to Siberia (albeit not for long) on ​​the frosty Surikov anniversary days of 1998, when thousands of Krasnoyarsk residents lined up just to see her. Of course, for us today, the image of the Cossack Maslenitsa game is something from history - distant, slightly forgotten, but at the same time so dear and close that the blood still boils from the festive revelry of the people's strength, valiant prowess.

Not only a bright surge of positive emotions held back for so long, but also a new flowering of painting skills - coloristic and compositional - was demonstrated by a canvas brought from Siberia.

From the book by Natalia Konchalovskaya "The Priceless Gift" about the history of the creation of the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town" from the site http://nkozlov.ru/library/s318/d3964/print/?full=1

... This man was of amazing cordiality and kindness (about the artist's brother Alexander Ivanovich), and not satisfied with his own life. He did not think about himself, everything about his mother and brother. And now his mind was busy new job Vasya. He himself pushed him to the idea of ​​painting a picture of the Siberian folk game - the capture of a snowy town. Vasily Ivanovich immediately lit up and began to collect material. Every market day, he hustled among the people in the morning, sketching paintings on arches and on old koshes. Once he saw a sledge with skillfully curved braces on the runners and immediately sketched them. He painted the rich patterns of Tyumen carpets in watercolor. He was occupied with images for the crowd of spectators. Yes, and there was nothing to look for, you just had to go out the gate - everything is there! Vasily Ivanovich peered into these faces, illuminated by the sun, or into a cloudy day in diffused light, and it seemed to him that each of these faces could organically grow into the picture. How close and understandable they all were to him with their severe Siberian beauty!

He knew the game of capturing a snowy town from early childhood. Once grandfather Alexander Stepanovich took him to Torgoshino to look at this game. For the rest of his life, Vasya remembered the lathered horse, which, having broken through the snowy wall, slipped right next to their koshevaya and threw clods of snow on both him and his grandfather. This game has remained from ancient times in memory of the conquest of Siberia by Yermak. In many villages, snowy towns were built for Shrovetide, but the Torgoshins sculpted entire fortresses in advance, with cannons, loopholes, towers, figures of animals or horse heads. Then the fortress was filled with water, and it, like a crystal, sparkled rainbow under the sun. Beauty was extraordinary! Dashing horsemen-Cossacks ran into the town! Not every horse went to the fortress, others shied aside, reared up, rested, and even threw the rider. Well, then it’s quite a shame - they dump them in the snow, cuff them, the people are all mischievous, cheerful, with twigs, with whips. They wave, shout, laugh, do not allow the horse to approach the fortress, while others, on the contrary, urge, tease, drive to storm. Noise, screaming, whistling, hooting…

All this now surfaced in Surikov's memory, and he enthusiastically sketched out sketches for the conceived canvas. Alexander Ivanovich reliably drove his brother around the villages. Once he persuaded the guys from the village of Ladeika to build a real fortress, and a Cossack was also found, who then flew into it. Surikov managed to make several sketches, but he did not catch the horse's movement. After all, it's only one minute! Where can you get it!..

After seeing off the Zhilin girls, Alexander Ivanovich returned home and went upstairs to his brother. He found him at his desk. Pencil sketches of the composition were laid out under a lamp with a green cap.

You should lie down, Vasenka. After all, tomorrow the stove-maker Dmitry will bring the neighbors a little light. For three buckets of vodka, they agreed to fashion a fortress in the yard. I'll be in my presence by nine, so I'll help them, I'll find two free hours. And you get up early and look - maybe you can tell something ...

Vasily Ivanovich, overjoyed, looked up from his drawings,

What are you, Sasha, well done! How you are enough for everything, you are a hot soul! - He looked, smiling, into his brother's face, thin, beautiful, with a thick mustache, lowered down like a Cossack, and it seemed that at that moment there was no one closer and dearer than this sensitive and kind person.

Healing

Vasily Ivanovich disliked Kapiton Domozhilov, whom she was married to stepsister his Lisa. She left home early - it was difficult to live with her stepmother Praskovya Fedorovna. Vasily Ivanovich did not make friends with his son-in-law. “A nasty priest, greedy,” he said of Domozhilov, “and he has some kind of hoarding surname, and he completely removed our Lisa from us!”

But the daughter of the Domozhilovs, Tanya, did not at all look like a parent. The slender beauty with a clean face, from which the expression of friendly attention and some kind of childish gullibility did not leave, was loved by everyone in the Surikovs' house, even a strict grandmother.

This summer, Tanya often went with the Surikovs on long walks beyond the Yenisei. Uncle Sasha harnessed Savrasoy, and everyone got into the tarantass. Vasily Ivanovich certainly captured the sketchbook.

Yes, why are you taking paints, - brother Sasha was sometimes perplexed, - after all, we are going for half an hour ...

Well, no-o-o! Not a single good hunter will go into the forest without a gun, so an artist has nothing to do in the forest without a sketchbook!

And each time they had to wait until Vasily Ivanovich finished the watercolor, and in the summer there is no escape from midges in the taiga. Tanya took taiga nets from midges with her for walks. And once Vasily Ivanovich noticed how Tanya's face was looking through this net. It was like a reflection in a mirror, and from it, as from her whole strong figure, it exuded such chastity, freshness and innocence that, upon his return, Vasily Ivanovich immediately put the canvas on the easel and began the portrait. This portrait was completed quickly; I hung in the upper room. And now one of beautiful women Krasnoyarsk, the wife of the doctor Rachkovsky, Ekaterina Alexandrovna, posed for Vasily Ivanovich. He painted her in profile, wearing a fur cape and a scarf over her cap. Her arm was threaded through a skunk muff. It was a study already for a new picture, where Rachkovskaya will sit in a kosheve. Brother Sasha Vasily Ivanovich will sit opposite her, let him show off in a beaver hat against the background of a painted arc with bells.

There were many sketches and sketches.

He found a wonderful girl in the neighborhood. I wanted to write her laughing, and Vasily Ivanovich tried to make her laugh. different jokes. She smiled, revealing two rows of dazzling teeth, but her eyes remained serious in the sketch - apparently, posing was too unusual for her.

All these sketches were now hanging in Surikov's working room. Every day there were more of them. All this was being prepared to be united in a cheerful riot of life, in a valiant Siberian game, where danger, dexterity and daring embodied childhood memories dear to Surikov and inspired him to a new fury of the heart that he had lost in recent years.

Today he got up at six in the morning, it was barely beginning to get light. The frost was not great, and several people in the twilight rolled up huge clods of snow and hewed them, preparing them for the construction of a wall. Alexander Ivanovich pulled a ladder out of the house for them.

Vasily Ivanovich explained what exactly he would like to reproduce from what he himself had seen more than once. They began to lay a wall with an arch in the middle. Dmitry the stove-maker, a young Cossack with a reddish mustache on a face brick-red with excitement and frost, was watching the construction. They installed pillars along the edges of the wall with famously fashioned snowy horse heads, with coals instead of eyes. The stove-maker was wearing a red short fur coat, blue plush trousers and light felt boots - in the approaching dawn Vassily Ivanovich could already distinguish these colors.

The men had finished the wall and were now spraying it with water from a watering can. In the morning frost, their voices sounded clear and loud. It became almost completely light.

Oh, how good it all is! - Hot jubilation seized the artist and, as happened before, caused completely unexpected desires and actions.

Laughing, he began to quickly make big snowballs and throw them one by one. Snowballs firmly stuck to the ice wall, and it became like an unevenly hollowed stone of some old Italian palace.

The daughters came out onto the porch. They had already gathered for the gymnasium and were watching with cheerful surprise the exact and quick movements of their father - for a long time they had not seen him in such cheerfulness.

Yep, my time is up! - said Uncle Sasha, seeing his nieces. - Well, brothers, it's time for me to be present. In the barn - a three-bucket barrel of vodka. When it's all over, pick it up. - And he disappeared behind the kitchen door: it was necessary to have breakfast and change clothes.

Girls, don’t be late for the gymnasium, ”Vasily Ivanovich said to his bewitched daughters.

The sun peeked out from behind the hills and cast its first slanting rays on the snowy town. It began to play with a pink sparkle, casting blue under the wide archway. Olya and Lena ran down the steps of the porch and, before going out the gate, ran in turn under the snowy arch, bowing their heads in fur bonnets.

Before the start of the game, Surikov called everyone to have breakfast. Illuminated by the flaming Russian stove, the "masters of snow" were sitting in Praskovya Fyodorovna's kitchen, eating dumplings and drinking tea with bagels, laughing and joking at each other.

When everyone left the house to the courtyard, the sun hid behind the clouds. The town stood in a blue shimmer. Dmitry the stove maker ran after the horse, and Surikov, having grabbed a block and a watercolor box from the workshop, sat down on a bench to paint the untouched fortress in color.

Dmitry was already riding back and forth along Blagoveshchenskaya on a beautiful bay horse, warming it up and urging it on to storm the fortress. The Cossacks were arguing noisily over which side it was better to start from. Like sparrows, the neighboring boys flew into the blank fence, while others settled on the roofs of the nearby sheds.

And so it began. Putting aside watercolor sketches, Vasily Ivanovich armed himself with a pencil and asked Dmitry to gallop several times and rear his horse in front of the fortress - he wanted to catch the movement of a galloping horse. Everything was prepared, the guys called into the yard to take places near the town. The Cossacks, armed with twigs, sticks and whips, stood in the far corner of the garden.

Dmitry started from afar, from Blagoveshchenskaya, rode it, turned it into the gates of the house, walked around the fortress to a group of Cossacks. With whooping and whistling, they began to wave twigs, sending the bay to storm the snowy wall, around which the boys bawled and rushed about, scaring away the horse.

Come on, gay! .. Let's fly in! .. - shouted the Cossacks.

Dmitri turned his horse around and set it at full speed on the town. Sitting on the porch, Vasily Ivanovich caught every movement of the horse and sketched it on paper. The horse began to dance, and then reared up. In terrible tension, Dmitry bent down and, having whipped him hard with a whip, forced him with a jerk, with his whole chest, to fly into the fortress. Like a hero, with a running start, he opened the closed gates with his shoulder. The boys, screaming, shied away.

Surikov was satisfied: he caught the movement of the horse, the strong, bulging shoulder muscles under the shiny coat, and the snow wall breaking under pressure into pieces. With clear strokes of a pencil, he depicted this movement on paper and now repeated it in detail from memory. The lathered horse stood among the clods of the ruined structure, two snowy horse heads lay under his feet.

Well, Vasily Ivanovich, did it work out? Dimitri asked, breathing heavily.

Fabulous! Just amazingly successful! Everything was visible at a glance. Thank you, Dmitry! Thank you guys! Helped me well. - He still continued to draw, now and then looking at the rider, squinting and smiling.

A few minutes later, the Cossacks, joking and joking, rolled out a barrel of vodka on a sled from the gates of Surikov's house. The boys accompanied them, whistling and laughing all over Blagoveshchenskaya. Surikov, with an album in his hands, remained on the porch in front of the ruined fortress. And on the sheets, again and again, a powerful jerk of the horse, captured by the true eye of the artist, arose, with which the whole scene of the old folk game was decided. Here, in Siberia, far from the bustle of Moscow, from the usual world of artists, his life seemed to start anew.

Meanwhile, Stasov wrote to Tretyakov: “... Do you have any information about Surikov from Siberia? What a loss it is for Russian art - his departure and unwillingness to write more!!!

"The Capture of the Snow City"

Perhaps for the first time in his life, Vasily Ivanovich wrote easily and quickly - without difficult recessions and failures, without painful doubts.

The painting, four arshins long and two high, stood on an easel in the upper room. The composition was solved somehow at once, and Vasily Ivanovich now worked with pleasure. Everything was under his control: skill, inspiration, impulse were now unfolding in full force.

The brothers still continued to travel around Krasnoyarsk villages. Vasily Ivanovich was still afraid of missing something, he always tried to peep something new. Once we stopped at Torgoshino, tried to persuade the youth to build a town. Yes, where is it! The guys refused, they no longer knew how to get along with a snow fortress, not like their grandfathers.

Traditions go away over the years, - Vasily Ivanovich lamented.

In Drokino, he once wrote from the nature of one peasant with a funny last name - Nashivochnikov. He was wearing a dog fur coat and a hat with a blue top. So he took his place in the picture, sitting on the left in a sleigh with skillfully curved runners and brandishing a whip ...

In Ladeyki they built a real fortress for Vasily Ivanovich and then stormed it in the promenade. Surikov himself chose the place for the game. On the right are the huts, on the left, somewhere behind the crowd, the Yenisei is guessed, behind it are the Krasnoyarsk hills with arable land in the blue, damp, spring haze.

The female types of Siberians, from which Vasily Ivanovich painted many sketches, were embodied in the picture in some fabulous Russian beauties. Militrises Kirbityevna Ruddy, in bright fur coats, they stand in the background, and amid the general cheerful rampage there is something surprisingly serious, touchingly shy in them ...

The central figure of the picture is a Cossack storming the town. In it, Vasily Ivanovich portrayed, in no way deviating from nature, Dmitry the stove-maker. His horse broke into a snowy wall, clods of snow fly from under the hooves, and his eye squints wildly. And behind the rider closed the young people standing in two rows. They laugh, shout, wave twigs... Only in the air can writing be so distinct, faces so fresh, movements so convincing. The hat fell off the recoiling boy and, still warm, lies on the snow. And the snow, just like in "Boyaryna Morozova", has many shades: somewhere on the right - yellowish, on the left - grayish, turning into blue. And, as always on a cloudy day, in the blinding color play of snow, the sun invisible behind the clouds is guessed.

And how saturated color is in the open air and how bright! The kosheva is covered with a shaggy Tyumen carpet, and the flowers on it are blue, pink, blue, large green, feathery leaves ... The shaggyness of the carpet, its texture is especially noticeable in the deep folds in the corners of the kosheva, and the brightness of the colors amuses, pleases the eye. Rachkovskaya is sitting in the koshevo with her friendly smile. She wears a skunk cape, and the blue fur of her muff shines beautifully against the colorful carpet. Next to Rachkovskaya is a young lush priest in an ermine collar, and opposite her brother Sasha. He is so expressive in his character that, perhaps, among the general mass of faces, this is already a portrait.

By spring, the picture was completed, and Vasily Ivanovich showed it to his acquaintances in Krasnoyarsk. One day, fourteen-year-old Dmitry Karatanov, a future famous Siberian artist, came to the Surikovs. He often came to show his work. Vasily Ivanovich liked to talk with the talented young man, always finding merit in his still inept drawings.

You work from nature, that's good. Continue. But you have to learn how to draw correctly. - Vasily Ivanovich took out an engraving depicting a woman's head from a folder. - Look how the nose and eyes are correctly placed in the face. Learn how to make faces...

They talked for three hours. Vasily Ivanovich showed the boy his Italian sketches - he took them everywhere with him. And in the end he brought Dmitry to a new picture. The boy was stunned. For a long time, in silence, he examined the huge canvas, which barely fit in the workshop. Vasily Ivanovich was also silent, lost in thought and looking closely at his work - each time he looked at it in a new way. And then he said to himself:

Folk art is a crystal clear spring. He must be contacted.

Household?

The Siberian painting was presented to the public in March 1891 in St. Petersburg. This year, for some reason, all the Wanderers exhibited small things and almost everything of some kind of dull spirit. The lady, dying of consumption, sadly sat in an armchair in the painting “In warm climes» Yaroshenko. Pasternak's painting "To Relatives" depicted two women: one is a young widow with a baby, the second is his nurse, a bleak sight. Shishkin this time chose only one pine tree for his brush and put it alone: ​​"In the wild north." He could not bring Ge to joyful excitement with his "Judas". The mood in the halls of the exhibition coincided with the mood of the bourgeois public. This was evident from the newspaper articles, in which the critics thoroughly savored each scene, which corresponded to the melancholy mood of the "high society", on which the fate of the artists depended.

And in this mood, Surikov's riot of colors and folk fun, splashing from the painting "The Capture of the Snow Town", broke into a sharp dissonance. Critics, accustomed to following the spirit of bourgeois society, were incomprehensible and unpleasant for Surikov's life-affirming freshness. They pounced on him, without coming up with good arguments and without choosing the type of weapon, and therefore quite often they fell into each other and into themselves. One did not like the plot, and he wrote: “The current picture of Surikov does not cause anything but bewilderment. It is difficult to understand why and how an artist could put such a mere trifle into a colossal frame, the size of a good gate ... The content is poor, anecdotal. A barely noticeable, moreover, worldly trifle, alien to our mores, is taken at random - absurd fun. How is it conceivable to explain the origin and appearance of such a picture? For what did you need it and who needs it? .. "

Another scribe finds that: “The same lack of perspective, depth and air that spoils all of Surikov’s paintings is also inherent in his new work. There is very little air, and some dirty tones are noticed, which, however, are not devoid of brightness ... "

The third one likes the plot, but: “The cruel variegation of colors hurts the eye in the picture. All of it is like the carpet that is hung in it on the back of the sleigh on the right, and the individual figures of the crowd merge in it into something motley, solid, many-headed ... "

Another irritated and bewildered gentleman noted in the “Petersburg leaflet”: “ strange phenomenon at the exhibition - this picture of Mr. Surikov, interpreting on a huge canvas an old Cossack game at a carnival in Siberia. It is obviously designed for a great power of color and writing and is dotted with bright colors, but Mr. Surikov, in pursuit of the effect, did not achieve the desired goal ... "

Another critic from Moskovskie Vedomosti decided that: “The transition from historical to genre paintings is household picture Surikov city. Its plot is not entirely clear ... The picture is written in the well-known style of Mr. Surikov, it is heavy, motley, crowded, this time there is a little more air in it ... "

And in Russkiye Vedomosti, a critic stated: “It is easy to move from historical paintings to ethnography: in our opinion, Mr. Surikov’s painting is distinguished by such ethnographic interest.”

Vasily Ivanovich read all this with a mixed feeling of bewilderment, anxiety, and yet humor. But the consciousness of his rightness prevailed. He himself considered the picture "everyday", perhaps precisely because it did not have a solid historical plot, which is based on some specific event, and everyone is used to waiting for this from Surikov.

Meanwhile, the historical past undoubtedly stood behind the mischievous, violent folk scene: after all, all historical and political events were reflected in rituals, songs, fairy tales, and traditional festivals. Beginning with ancient times, the history of the people was affirmed by life and art, and these two lines were always closely intertwined.

The “capture of the town” was also an echo of the whole era of the conquest of Siberia, when Russian settlers had to defend themselves from the “foreign” tribes that inhabited Siberia, and when the Cossack squads “fought” Tatar fortresses and towns one after another.

Bourgeois critics showed little interest in epic and folk traditions. Meanwhile, Surikov's new painting was also historical painting, and from it Surikov went straight to Yermak. All this was closely connected by a single powerful spirit, close and dear to the artist since childhood. Through the prism of youthful memories, through the blood love for the motherland, Surikov's artistic vision was refracted, embodied in the bright, full of valiant prowess and healthy joy in the scene of "The Capture of the Snow Town".

The painting, however, was not bought. She traveled around Russia for several years. The cities changed: Moscow, Kyiv, Kharkov, Chisinau, Poltava, Odessa. Then the picture went abroad - to Paris, to the World Exhibition.

Only eight years later, Surikov wrote to his already lonely brother Sasha (Praskovya Fedorovna was not alive) that he had finally sold The Capture of the Town to the collector von Mecca for ten thousand rubles.