The painting “Everything is in the Past”, artist V. M. Maksimov – description

Description of the picture:

Everything in the past – Vasily Maximovich Maximov. Canvas, oil. 70 two x 93.5 cm

From the paintings of the painter Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov, you can get an idea of ​​the life and life of the 19th century Russian village. The heroes of all his works are ordinary farmers with their own traditions and customs.

But the picture “Everything in the Past” is somewhat out of the general gallery of the peasant genre. It was written in one thousand eight hundred eighty-nine years, but the first thoughts about its development appeared in 1885, when Maximov inherited from his mother-in-law the estate in the village of Lyubsha, Novoladozhsky district.

By one thousand eight hundred eighty-eight years, sketches and sketches began to form in the future picture. For an old lady, a relative posed for him, the wife of Alexei’s brother, Varvara. On the canvas, two ladies who have lived the bulk of life and now, on their advanced years, are quietly and peacefully resting, basking in the rays of the spring sun.

The fact that this is specifically a spring day says a catchy, blossoming, lush bush of lilacs near the wall of an ordinary log cabin. In the distance, a garden with dry trees and once a chic manor house, but at the moment an old one with boarded up windows. He also outlived his, as well as his former mistress.

At the moment, she is sitting in an armchair, covered with pillows and either sleeping or recalling the past. The lady is dressed, as befits a lady, in a silk dress, in a velvet cloak trimmed with fur. On the head is a powdered wig with a bow. Surely, such was worn in the years of her youth. In a limp hand dropped lorgnet. Near the chair there is a cane and a faithful dog. The whole view of the landowner reads about the traces of the former nobility, power, wealth.

The second character is an ordinary peasant woman, maybe a former servant, shorting her own century with her mistress. Naturally, her clothes are also sophisticated – a chintz skirt, a checkered apron, a simple jacket, a black scarf on her head, and knitting in her hands.

They just drank tea. On the table, covered with a beautiful tablecloth, a magnificent cup with gilt was served for the lady, some of the food in a plate covered with a snow-white napkin, a sugar bowl. Next to the steps is a large brilliant samovar and a large mug for a partner. Anyone is busy with their ideas, although the painter painted them together, but they do not have common topics for conversation.

The hostess has something to remember and she, leaning back in her chair, indulged in dreams. But the maidservant, as usual, had an essential thought — to cook, ventilate the blankets and clothes, look after the lady, slip pillows under her legs, clean the samovar, and knit warm socks for the winter.

Maybe she was a former serf, once owned by this landowner. But after the abolition of serfdom, she did not go anywhere, and remained with her in the handmaidens. Most likely, she has to maintain life and order in this house, in which they are together, due to the prevailing events.

The reform of the abolition of serfdom affected the current structure of all layers of Russia, including the nobility. They began to lose their social and economic positions, go bankrupt, sell land and estates, go to the city or abroad.

This is the sad period of decline and desolation of the first of many noble estates, and the painter portrayed us, seemingly continuing the theme of “noble nests.”

Despite the warm spring day, the whole picture blows in the fall, nostalgia for the eternally bygone years. And all these attributes in the form of china and expensive clothes are the remnants of the former luxury of a once luxurious estate.

For the painter Maximov, this is perhaps the most colorful work in the sensual sense. It is felt to the smallest detail, a certain step in the life of not only a certain character, but also a whole time era of the middle and end of the 19th century is really conveyed.

A fascinating fact from the artist’s work – it’s clear that from the painting “Everything in the Past”, Maximov made 40 two reproductions."