Painting by V. D. Polenov "The Moscow Courtyard". Is it Moscow?

Who can get to Moscow, a modern metropolis with a population of twelve million (this is only official data, and in fact it is approaching twenty million), high-rise buildings, metro, water parks, wide highways, which still do not accommodate all vehicles, huge shopping centers, in this cozy quiet Corner? And where is he? Only the picture of V.D. Polenova "Moscow courtyard".

Painter

Vasily Dmitrievich was born under the zodiac sign of the Gemini. This means that he had an easy character (not to be confused with a lightweight one), mobile, mobile, friendly. Polenov was a nobleman, the son of an archaeologist and bibliographer. I got my painting skills from my mother. Moscow, depicted in the picture, was then small, fit mostly inside the Garden Ring. The great success of his life was the meeting with the brilliant teacher of drawing P. P. Chistyakov. Usually the nature was fixed for a long time, but Chistyakov could crumple an ordinary sheet of paper, throw it on the table and say: "Draw." This school of drawing is gone, it seems, forever. That was the most accurate transfer of nature, a very professional approach to drawing, in particular, and to painting in general.

Doubts and hesitations

Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov at first hesitated: he received a diploma in law and engaged in music. Approximately to thirty years he is quite defined as an artist. On an internship in Paris Polenov receives the title of academician. Then the artist goes to Italy. Rome seemed to him a dead city, but Polenov fell in love with Venice and studied in the originals with Paolo Veronese. It is abroad that he begins to understand that he is a landscape painter. And one of the first things written in Russia on return is a picture (VD Polenova) "Moscow courtyard".

At the Wanderers' Exhibition

The picture shows the beginning of summer, morning, the very beginning of a clear sunny day. At first the eye runs around, not focusing on details, the whole landscape, embracing both grass-ant, and paths, and a tall white bell tower, and a five-domed church in the distance. And there is the impression of a holiday and a special silence, which nothing can disturb. Serenity is, apparently, the general structure of the picture. But where exactly is the picture of V.D. Polenov "Moscow Courtyard", it is not known. It was rumored that in the Arbat alleys behind the theater to them. Vakhtangov. But now there is nothing like this and not find it.

The inhabitants of this yard merged with nature. They live quietly and naturally. Life style is far from being metropolitan. From the houses with a bucket to the well, a woman walks slowly. At the shed they dig, looking for worms, chickens. While still standing, but, probably, the horse, harnessed to the cart, will soon be on the move. Everything rises above the sun, which means it's time to go on daily business. All this is a picture of V.D. Polenova "Moscow Courtyard" tells poetically with elegiac notes. A white two-storeyed mansion, illuminated by the sun, is festively celebrated, and a juicy green of trees looks out from behind the fence. Above all of this peacefully blue sky with white light clouds.

When Moscow was not yet a million inhabitants, in 1878 this picture was easily and quickly created. It was demonstrated at the exhibition of the Wanderers. The artist was very worried that in his picture there is no ideological orientation, a show of the life of oppressed people. But he still lives, still, in his leisurely simple way of life, the picture of V.D. Polenova "Moscow courtyard". The writing should reflect the personal attitude to the life of Muscovites more than a hundred years ago and to the benevolent view of the artist who openly admires this life.