The history of the painting by Perov Troika. “Troika” is the most emotional painting by Vasily Perov: a tragic story of creation

Few people know how the Russian artist Vasily Perov painted his painting “Troika (Apprentice artisans carrying water).” For a long time he could not find an image central character, and after he managed to choose him, he became a participant in a real drama in a simple peasant family.

Vasily Perov has been working on the painting for a long time. Most of it was written, only the central character was missing, the artist could not find the right type. One day Perov was walking in the vicinity of the Tverskaya Zastava and looking at the faces of the artisans who, after celebrating Easter, were returning from the villages back to the city to work. It was then that the artist saw a boy who would subsequently rivet the viewers’ eyes to his painting. He was from the Ryazan province and went with his mother to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

The artist, excited that he had found “the one,” began to emotionally beg the woman to allow him to paint a portrait of her son. The frightened woman did not understand what was happening and tried to speed up her pace. Then Perov invited her to go to his workshop and promised her an overnight stay, because he learned that the travelers had nowhere to stay.

In the studio, the artist showed the woman an unfinished painting. She was even more frightened, saying that it was a sin to draw people: some wither away from it, while others die. Perov persuaded her as best he could. He gave examples of kings and bishops who posed for artists. In the end, the woman agreed.
While Perov was painting a portrait of the boy, his mother talked about her difficult lot. Her name was Aunt Marya. The husband and children died, only Vasenka remained. She doted on him. The next day, the travelers left, and the artist was inspired to finish his canvas. It turned out to be so heartfelt that it was immediately acquired by Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov and exhibited in the gallery.

Four years later, Aunt Marya appeared on the threshold of Perov’s workshop again. Only she was without Vasenka. The woman said in tears that her son had contracted smallpox the year before and died. Later, Perov wrote that Marya did not blame him for the boy’s death, but he himself did not leave him feeling guilty for what happened.
Aunt Marya said that she worked all winter, sold everything she had, just to buy a painting of her son. Vasily Perov replied that the painting was sold, but you can look at it. He took the woman to Tretyakov’s gallery. Seeing the picture, the woman fell to her knees and began to sob. “You are my dear! Here’s your knocked out tooth!” - she wailed.

For several hours the mother stood in front of the image of her son and prayed. The artist assured her that he would paint a portrait of Vasenka separately. Perov fulfilled his promise and sent a portrait of the boy in a gilded frame to the village to Aunt Marya.

Troika - Perov. 1866. Oil on canvas. 123.5x167.5

Along a deserted and ominously gloomy street, swept by an icy blizzard, three children are carrying a huge vat of water, covered with matting. The water, splashing out of the vat, instantly freezes, turning into icicles. This is how the author refers to the winter cold, which makes the work even more dramatic.

Three childish figures, different, but equally emaciated, are harnessed to a cart like a trio of horses. The face of the only girl in the harness is turned directly to the viewer. An open sheepskin coat reveals an old, washed-out skirt. The eyes are half-closed, there is tension and inexpressible torment on the face. The cold wind ruffles her hair, and her heavy, large boots that are not for her age further emphasize the fragility of her girl’s figure.

The boy on the far left is apparently the youngest of the trio. Hard work seems to have almost completely drained him of his strength. The hand hangs limply, tension can be read throughout the body, and the thin, pale child’s neck and gaze, full of despair and hopelessness, complete the tragic picture.

As you know, master for a long time I couldn’t find a model for the central figure of the “troika”. This is the oldest of the children depicted in the picture. According to the plot of the work it is central figure bears the main part of the dramaturgy of the work. As the eldest in the team, the boy tries to play the role of leader. He, overcoming pain and cold, does not show his fatigue. All directed forward, by his very appearance he gives strength to his weakened comrades.

The childish eyes of the trio of sufferers, their clothes from someone else’s shoulders, backbreaking work - the master calls on the viewer to be horrified by the situation of the children, calls for mercy.

Particular attention should be paid to surrounding landscape. A deserted street, a monastery wall (this can be easily determined by the part of the gate with an image above it), two human figures - a man wrapped in a fur coat against the cold, a man pushing a barrel of water from behind. The author does not show us the faces of adults. It’s as if they are not present in the picture, they become only part of the landscape.

The dog running next to him is not happy at all. Baring his teeth at the cold, darkness and twilight, he accompanies his owners, enduring all the hardships and difficulties with them.

The gray, gloomy sky is enlivened by several flying birds, also suffering from frost.

Gray, dirty snow underfoot, scattered brushwood, icy sleds. All of the above enhances the impression of the picture, filling it with an atmosphere of hopelessness, suffering and doom.

The work became a powerful and loud denunciation, a protest against the use of child labor and ruthless treatment of children.

Many times this picture saved me from despair at school. The reproduction hung on the wall next to my desk. For several years, the guy in the center of the trio was my friend.

“Did your teacher humiliate you? It's not scary, look at us.
Now there will be a teachers' meeting, and you will be kicked out of school for the third time? It's not scary, look at us.
Are three of the school's most gangster faces waiting for you on the porch to force you to obey them? It's not scary, look at us"
And I watched. And I became not afraid. Thank you, my friends from the past. Thanks to whoever hung the picture next to my desk. After all, my life could have taken a different path...

And only much later I learned that Perov’s painting is called not just Troika, but “Troika. Artisan apprentices are carrying water" (1866).
“Who among us does not know Perov’s “Troika,” wrote V.V. Stasov, “these Moscow children who were forced by their owner to drag a huge vat of water on sleds across the icy conditions. All these kids are probably from the villages and have just been brought to Moscow to fish. But how much they suffered in this “business”! Expressions of hopeless suffering, traces of eternal beatings are painted on their tired pale faces; their whole lives are told in their rags, their poses, in the heavy turn of their heads, in their exhausted eyes...”

Perov was never given the image of a center boy, everything was not right. But one day he met a woman and a child who were walking from a Ryazan village to a monastery to worship. Her name was Aunt Marya, and her son’s name was Vasenka.

Perov had difficulty persuading the old woman to let him paint her son: for a long time she could not understand anything, she was always afraid and said that this was a great sin. After much persuasion, she finally agreed, and Perov took them to his workshop, showed them the unfinished painting and explained what he needed. The boy sat quietly; Perov wrote passionately and quickly, and the old woman, who upon closer examination turned out to be much younger, quietly talked about how she buried her husband and children and was left with only her son Vasenka - her only joy.

And the picture turned out! So much so that Tretyakov bought it, and Perov was given the title of Academician... The picture “teared hearts,” as contemporaries said. And it gave me strength!

Four years passed, and Aunt Marya came to Perov again. The bundle contained money that she earned by selling everything: the house, livestock, belongings... She wanted to buy this painting. Her son Vasenka died.

Perov took her to Tretyakov.

You are my dear! Here's your knocked out tooth! - Aunt Marya screamed and knelt down in front of the painting.

Perov promised Aunt Marya to paint a portrait of Vasya for her. He fulfilled his promise and sent her a portrait in a gilded frame to the village.

Perov himself recalls:
“Arriving in the room where the painting hung, which the old woman so convincingly asked to sell, I left her to find this painting herself,” Perov wrote in the story “Aunt Marya.” “I admit, I thought that she would search for a long time, and maybe , and will not find the traits dear to her at all; Moreover, it could be assumed that there were a lot of paintings in this room. But I was wrong. She looked around the room with her meek gaze and quickly went to the picture where her dear Vasya was actually depicted. Approaching the painting, she stopped, looked at it and, clasping her hands, somehow unnaturally cried out: “You are my father! You’re my dear, that’s where your tooth got knocked out!” - and with these words, like grass cut by a swing of a mower, it fell to the floor.”
The mother spent a lot of time at the painting, no one disturbed her, and only the attendant standing at the door looked at her with eyes full of tears.”

Indifferently listening to curses
In the battle with the lives of dying people,
Because of them, do you hear, brothers,
Quiet crying and complaints from children?
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. 1860

In Rus' they sang: “A mother cries like a river flows, a sister cries like a stream flows, a wife cries like the dew falls. When the sun rises, it will dry the dew.”

Plot

Frosty winter. The owner sent his artisans to fetch water. Just teenagers, weak, poorly dressed, they are dragging a heavy barrel. The title contains not only and not so much bitter irony - a real three horses would carry a barrel in an instant - but a story about how the owner treats apprentices - like draft horses that need to be driven until the foam comes out.

By the way, the full title of the picture is “Troika. Artisan apprentices are carrying water.” Of course, their owner didn’t teach them anything. In the winter, peasants - young and old - went to the cities to earn money. Children were taken into workshops, shops, stores and kept at their beck and call, forced to do work that was more suitable for adults in terms of difficulty. And it was these children who were called artisans and apprentices.

They said about Perov that he is the Gogol and Ostrovsky of Russian painting

The colors that the artist chose also intensify the atmosphere: gloomy, muted, gray. The street, on which there is no one at this hour, passes by the monastery, whose high, strong walls press and overhang. Here one involuntarily recalls another trinity - the Old Testament.

"Trinity" by Rublev

Context

Perov even wrote a story about the history of the creation of the painting, “Aunt Marya.” It was like this. For a long time the artist could not find a sitter for the boy in the center. One spring he wandered near the Tverskaya Zastava and saw factory workers and artisans who, after Easter, were returning from their villages to the city to work. In this diverse crowd, Perov spotted his boy. The teenager walked with his mother from the Ryazan province to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. On the way, they wanted to spend the night in Moscow.

“...I immediately told her that I really liked the boy and I would like to paint a portrait of him... The old lady understood almost nothing, but only looked at me more and more incredulously. I then decided on a last resort and began to persuade him to come with me. The old woman agreed to this last one. Arriving at the studio, I showed them the painting I had started and explained what was going on.

The artist's last name is Kridener, and Perov is a nickname for his beautiful handwriting

She seemed to understand, but nevertheless stubbornly refused my proposal, citing the fact that they had no time, that this was a great sin, and, in addition, she had also heard that people not only wither from this, but even die. I tried as best I could to assure her that this was not true, that these were just fairy tales, and to prove my words I cited the fact that both kings and bishops allow portraits of themselves to be painted, and St. Evangelist Luke was a painter himself, that there are many people in Moscow from whom portraits were painted, but they do not wither and do not die from it.”

Peasant children. 1860s

After hesitating, the woman agreed, and Perov immediately got to work. While the artist was writing, Aunt Marya was talking about life. She buried her husband and children, leaving only her son Vasya, and she loved him immensely. Willy-nilly, you will remember “Who Lives Well in Rus'” by Nekrasov (the poem, by the way, was written later than the picture):

The keys to women's happiness,

From our free will

Abandoned, lost

From God himself!..

4 years after the painting was completed, presented to the public and bought by Tretyakov for his collection, Perov met again with Aunt Marya. “...she explained to me that her son, Vasenka, last year fell ill with smallpox and died. She told me in all the details about his serious illness and painful death, about how they lowered him into the damp earth, and buried with him all her joys and joys. She did not blame me for his death - no, it was God’s will, but it seemed to me as if I was partly to blame for her grief. I noticed that she thought the same thing, although she didn’t say it,” Perov wrote.

The artist took Marya to Tretyakov to show him the painting. The woman bawled for several hours, kneeling in front of the canvas, as if in front of an icon. Perov painted a portrait of Vasenka for the peasant woman, which she hung among the icons.

The fate of the artist

In his short life - Vasily Grigorievich died of consumption when he was not even 50 years old - the artist managed to make a kind of revolution. He brought street life and faces to the galleries ordinary people, dullness, dirt and poverty, which some did not talk about, while others did not know at all.

The mother of the sitter for Troika believed that painting portraits of people was a sin

Perov himself, although he was the illegitimate son of a provincial prosecutor, lived modestly. He had no rights to his father's name and title. Perov received his surname as a nickname from the clerk from whom he took his first literacy lessons: “Look at how he writes letters beautifully, as if he was born with a pen in his hand. And therefore I will call him Perov.”

Vasya decided to become an artist quite early. It was like this. The baron had a respectable kennel, and in the most prominent place in his office hung a portrait of his parent along with his beloved dog. After the death of the dog, the baron invited an artist, who was instructed to sketch the dead animal directly on the portrait and depict a new one in its place. Little Vasily was so impressed by the magic that happened in the painting that he begged the artist to leave him the brushes and paints.

Self-portrait, 1851

Vasily did not stay long at the Arzamas painting school, where he was soon sent to study. The teenager did not have a good relationship with his classmates - after yet another offensive nickname, Perov threw a plate of hot porridge at the offender. On the same day, Vasily was expelled from school and sent home.

He continued his education in Moscow at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. There was no money to live on; Perov even thought about quitting his studies. But the teacher E. Ya. Vasiliev helped, who settled young talent he took care of him at home and in a fatherly manner.

Perov also published in the "Art Magazine"

Perov was concerned with folk types. Sometimes he took stories from Nekrasov or Turgenev, but mostly, of course, from life. Even in Europe, where he went in the early 1860s as a boarder at the Academy of Arts, the artist painted street people: merchants, organ grinders, beggars, onlookers, musicians. He returned from Europe ahead of time and lived in Moscow until the end of his days.

“Troika (Apprentice artisans carrying water)”- an incredibly emotional canvas created by Russian artist Vasily Perov. Three children harnessed to a sleigh are doomedly pulling a huge barrel of water. Very often the picture is cited as an example when talking about the difficult fate of peasants. But the creation of this picture became a real grief for an ordinary village woman.

Vasily Perov I've been working on the painting for a long time. Most of it was written, only the central character was missing, the artist could not find the right type. One day Perov was walking in the vicinity of the Tverskaya Zastava and looking at the faces of the artisans who, after celebrating Easter, were returning from the villages back to the city to work. It was then that the artist saw a boy who would subsequently rivet the viewers’ eyes to his painting. He was from the Ryazan province and went with his mother to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

The artist, excited that he had found “the one,” began to emotionally beg the woman to allow him to paint a portrait of her son. The frightened woman did not understand what was happening and tried to speed up her pace. Then Perov invited her to go to his workshop and promised her an overnight stay, because he learned that the travelers had nowhere to stay.

In the studio, the artist showed the woman an unfinished painting. She was even more frightened, saying that it was a sin to draw people: some wither away from it, while others die. Perov persuaded her as best he could. He gave examples of kings and bishops who posed for artists. In the end, the woman agreed.

While Perov was painting a portrait of the boy, his mother talked about her difficult lot. Her name was Aunt Marya. The husband and children died, only Vasenka remained. She doted on him. The next day, the travelers left, and the artist was inspired to finish his canvas. It turned out to be so heartfelt that it was immediately acquired by Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov and exhibited in the gallery.

Four years later, Aunt Marya appeared on the threshold of Perov’s workshop again. Only she was without Vasenka. The woman said in tears that her son had contracted smallpox the year before and died. Later, Perov wrote that Marya did not blame him for the boy’s death, but he himself did not leave him feeling guilty for what happened.

Aunt Marya said that she worked all winter, sold everything she had, just to buy a painting of her son. Vasily Perov replied that the painting was sold, but you can look at it. He took the woman to Tretyakov’s gallery. Seeing the picture, the woman fell to her knees and began to sob. “You are my dear! Here’s your knocked out tooth!” - she wailed.

For several hours the mother stood in front of the image of her son and prayed. The artist assured her that he would paint a portrait of Vasenka separately. Perov fulfilled his promise and sent a portrait of the boy in a gilded frame to the village to Aunt Marya.