Nikolai Alexeyevich Kasatkin (1859-1930) was a Russian artist, one of the last representatives of this community of artists, who managed to get along well with the Soviet authorities, becoming one of the founders of Socialist Realism. He even had to change almost nothing in his creative style, because he always sympathized with the common people and tried to show their lives as realistically as possible, without excessive embellishments, but also without vilification. He was even called “Nekrasov in painting”, and the images created by him are really interesting, as well as the subjects of some of his paintings. We will tell about the best and most memorable of them in this article.
Rivals girls
At the end of the 19th - early 20th century the Peredvizhniki Society was going through bad times. Their paintings already seemed hopelessly outdated, the leaders of the society Kramskoy and Yaroshenko died, Serov, Nesterov and Apollinarius Vasnetsov left the society. The society existed until 1923, and its last prominent representative was Nikolai Kasatkin.
Nikolai was born in the family of engraver Alexei Kasatkin, at the age of 14 began to study at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture at Savrasov, Perov and Illarion Pryanishnikov. And made notable successes, so for the painting “Beggars on the church porch” was awarded a silver medal and received the title of class artist.
Beggars on the church porch
However, due to a lack of funds, Kasatkin could not continue his education at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. His father was of very simple origin, and the family lived in a poor neighborhood, so the real life of workers Kasatkin saw from childhood and sincerely wanted to capture what he saw in his paintings.
The collection of coal by the poor
His entry into the society of itinerant artists was quite natural, as Kasatkin fully shared the ideology of this comradeship. He taught at his former school, worked in Sytin's publishing house, for example, illustrating the famous book “Russian History in Pictures”.
Who?
One of the most memorable paintings Kasatkin - “Who?” The plot is simple enough: a soldier was away for a long time, served in a cavalry regiment, but here, finally, he was allowed to go home for a visit. With excitement he enters a poor city apartment, without even removing the spores that interfere with walking, and sees that his wife has managed to give birth to a boy, who can not be his son. Previously, service in the cavalry had lasted at least five years, and it is possible that her husband had been away all that time.
A worker's family
The wife could not bear such a long separation, but the evidence of her adultery is too graphic. Not surprisingly, the husband is furious, and first made a small pogrom in the apartment, but to go around in a shabby room, where of the valuable things only samovar and table, especially nowhere, and then began to ask questions, the main of which: “who?” A golden-haired boy clings fearfully to his mother - Kasatkin deliberately portrayed him as an angel, wishing to play on the contrast with the angry soldier.
Kind grandfather
By the way, the picture was painted for a reason - at that time, the question of the rights of children born out of wedlock was raised in society, and this was the artist's response to the current topic.
Buyer
Many of Kasatkin's artworks are very literary, one can imagine a whole plot worthy of a short story, or even a novella, where the artist depicted the climax. Kasatkin kept the best traditions of the Itinerant painters sacredly.
In the corridor of the district court
Over time, his creative style changed: the stroke became sharper and more expressive, red-brown and blue tones began to prevail. Kasatkin focused on conveying the right mood, emotions and state of mind of the heroes of his paintings, not only on the subjects.
Uglecops. Change
After the revolution he continued to paint pictures from the life of workers and peasants, which found a positive response from the Soviet authorities. As a sign of special trust, Kasatkin even went abroad to depict “harsh working conditions in enemy capstrans”, but stayed there not too long. In 1927 he held his first solo exhibition, and later began artwork on one of his last paintings, Sigida.
Sigida
Nadezhda Sigida was a member of the Narodnaya Volya party, organized an underground printing house, and in her safe house the Narodnaya Volya people, including members of the militant terrorist group, met and lived. During a search, the police found dynamite sticks, with which the Narodnaya Volya party wanted to liquidate the Minister of the Interior Dmitry Tolstoy.
At the barrier
Sigida was sentenced to eight years' penal servitude, where, tortured by the self-rule of the local authorities, she slapped the commandant. The commandant got angry and ordered her to be flogged, which for the proud Sigida was tantamount to a death sentence. She drank a huge dose of morphine and committed suicide. Her act became very resonant, after her something similar was attempted by 23 other people sympathetic to Sigida at the same penal colony. As a result, there was even a decree prohibiting corporal punishment of women and nobles.
Kasatkin died unexpectedly when he presented this picture to the audience in 1930 - perhaps it was the excitement and heart problems.
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