Serafima Ryangina (1891-1955) was a Russian artist who became famous for her genre paintings, painted as if from the outside, in the style of Impressionists, depicting the moment here and now, and sometimes quite sharp and ambiguous, which does not do honor to her characters. But her work was favorably distinguished from the bravura and bombastic paintings of many socialist realists, it reflected life without embellishments, but also without the expositional message characteristic of the Peredvizhniki.
Worker-inventor
However, with the Itinerant artists Ryangina's work was related to the ability to tell in one picture a whole story, you can easily comprehend what was before the climax of the moment depicted in the picture, and what will be after.
We will talk about the life of the artist and her interesting artwork in this article.
Friends
Serafima loved to draw since childhood, as a result, her wealthy aristocratic parents gave her to a studio school on Foundry Avenue, whose head was Jan Tsionglinsky. She later said that she loved to depict a house in section, with people going about their business in each room, and tried to depict them from the perspective of an impassive observer. It was this approach that largely determined her artistic style.
Worker's Lunch
Having passed a large competition, Ryangina entered the Academy of Arts, but because of the revolution and other social upheavals, her studies were delayed for 10 years. There Ryangina also began a romantic relationship with her future husband Stepan Karpin.
He took an enviable position in the leadership of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (AARR), who aimed to continue the traditions of the Peredvizhniki, but with an eye to the revolutionary requirements for art. Not surprisingly, Ryangina began to paint in a realistic manner, without being distracted by the then fashionable avant-garde.
Self-portrait in evening light
At first she gained a hand on a series of self-portraits, which she wrote while sitting in front of a mirror, “because no sitter can not be so long alone with the artist,” and then moved on to genre paintings depicting various aspects of life of workers.
Literature
Often their faces were painted deliberately crude, as if emphasizing their proletarian origin, but the objects and surroundings were very carefully painted. Ryangina experimented with the composition of her paintings, choosing unexpected angles and perspective.
Such is the work of 1929 “The Wife Has Arrived”. A former peasant went to the city to earn money, leaving his wife and small child at home, and gradually settled there. Probably at first he still visited to check on his family, but city life dragged him down, the work at the factory took a lot of energy and time, so it soon became no time for artwork in the village. However, the young man could not bear to be without a woman, so he took a mistress. He sent home less and less money, and maybe even stopped, reasoning that his wife would somehow feed herself. His feelings faded away, leaving only a stamp in his passport and vague memories of his former life.
The wife came
But his wife was not satisfied with this situation, she heard about the adventures of her husband, and decided to go to him in the city. But the moment for the arrival chose for the man extremely unfortunate, he was caught unawares between two fires. The husband is still trying to justify himself, feeling guilty before his stern wife, but she does not believe him, and his face is burning with righteous anger.
The lover looks out from behind the door and is probably discouraged by this arrival, perhaps the man has not told her that he is already married. In general, the city lover is waiting for a very complex explanation, and his final choice to make him still have to make.
And what do you think, what will happen next, and with whom the man will eventually stay - write in the comments.
Against all odds. Five Soviet-era artists who painted in the style of Russian Impressionism.
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