In 1871, Ivan Kramskoy wrote his most mystical painting "Mermaids", popular rumor associated with which several completely inexplicable phenomena, including truly tragic. About what these phenomena were and about the history of the creation of the painting itself, we will talk in this article.
Kramskoy sincerely loved and appreciated the artwork of Gogol, and on one of them - "May Night or the Drowned Woman" conceived to write a picture. He sincerely admired the description of the night and night otherworldly creatures, all sorts of mermaids, watermen, drowned and other evil things, which at the very late hour, when all good people are already asleep, come out of the water on the shore and sing songs, looking at the river, sad about the ordinary human life gone forever. The spectacle was surely very strange and mesmerizing, leaving no one indifferent, and here you can also depict the stunning beauty of the glow of the moon on the river surface, and try to convey all the mystical charm of the night, the river and otherworldly, but no less beautiful girls.
Mermaids
Kramskoy took Levka's dream as the basis of the plot, but he did not try to recreate it verbatim - for Kramskoy it was more important his own idea of what was described in Gogol's story and all the wonderful visions that visited him during the artwork.
The painting is filled with a sense of light sadness, when you regret something good, but have already come to terms with the loss, and the memory causes only a desire to experience it all again. And Kramskoy also perfectly managed to depict the moonlight and mermaids in white clothes illuminated by it. Although they do not differ from ordinary people in appearance, there is no doubt that it is an otherworldly force.
Moonlight Night
It is not surprising that critics received the painting with enthusiasm and praised it, especially noting the unusual subject - Gogol was very popular and relevant at the time, but his artwork was rarely illustrated by serious artists, preferring domestic sketches and depiction of the suffering of the "humiliated and insulted" characteristic of the Itinerant artists.
To see this painting, queues lined up, not as big as during the premiere of the sensational "Moonlight Night on the Dnieper" by Arkhip Kuindzhi, but nevertheless.
Arkhip Kuindzhi. Moonlit Night on the Dnieper
Kramskoy was happy with such success - finally appreciated his painting on a mythological theme, and not another portrait, which he painted dozens, but was not too fond of doing it, considering it purely artwork to earn money. By the way, it was the need to provide for the family eventually accelerated Kramskoy's departure from life - the sick artist simply overdid it on the overpowering artwork. But even despite all the praise, he was not too pleased with the picture and all rushed to fix something, to bring the final touch.
At the Peredvizhniki exhibition, the painting was placed next to Savrasov's iconic landscape "The Rooks Have Arrived".
Alexei Savrasov. The Rooks have flown in
But as it turned out, such a neighborhood for "Rooks" was not pleasant - at night the painting suddenly fell from the wall. The workers who saw it claimed that the mermaids were to blame for the accident. Although the organizers of the exhibition did not believe such excuses and ordered to once again check whether the paintings are securely hung.
Then the painting was purchased by Tretyakov and it was hung in a prominent, well-lit place. But something mystical began - Tretyakov himself complained that when he looked at the painting, he felt a clear loss of strength, as if after hard artwork. The servants said: "you can hear mermaids singing in the room at night." Girls were strongly discouraged from looking at the painting - it was believed that they went mad from it, and it was said that "one of them ran to the nearest river and drowned herself".
A somnambulist
But an old lady said: "We should move the painting to a darkened room, so that the light does not disturb the mermaids." They did so and, as it turned out, not in vain - there were no more strange things behind the picture. Or maybe it's just that everyone is already used to it and stopped making up mystical stories.
And what do you think - write in the comments.
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