Vasily Perov
(1834-1882)

Vasily Perov - not simply one of the greatest artists of the second half of the XIX century. This figure stage care, standing alongside such artists as P. Fedotov , A. Venetsianov , MI Repin , whose work marked the birth of a new artistic principles, it became a landmark in the history of art.

Perov was born in Tobolsk, December 23, 1833. Was the illegitimate son of a local prosecutor, Baron GK Kriedener, last name as "Perov" future artist gave to his nickname as a teacher credentials, unimportant clerk. Having completed the course in the Arzamas district school, was given to art school AV Stupin in Arzamas. In 1853 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where his teachers were M. Scotti, A. Mokritsky and C. Robin . His mentor is the closest E. Vasiliev, the young artist stretching a helping hand in the most difficult period for him. A significant feature of training at the Moscow School had the opportunity to write at the same time with Stude "pictures on subjects of their own invented or selected from those proposed, but not defined." Subsequently published in 1881, the story "Our teachers' Perov creates vivid images of teachers and conveys his impressions of that time.

In 1856, in favor of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts sketch of the head boy got a silver medal. For this award was followed by others, awarded him by the Academy: in 1858 - a large silver medal for his painting "The Arrival of the tripod on the investigation," in 1860 - a small gold medal for the painting "Scene on a Grave" and "Son of a sacristan, produced in the first rank" , in 1861 - a gold medal for the "Sermon in the village." These four works Perov and he had written shortly after the "Scene on a Grave" and "Tea in Mytishchi," were exhibited in Moscow and St. Petersburg, made a great impression on the audience and the artist presented a witty genre painter, satirist, a direct descendant of P. Fedotov, not less endowed with its fine observation, delve deeply into Russian life, who can most clearly exhibit at the sight of her dark side, but far more adept at drawing and art, than the author of "Courting Major."

Received together with a gold medal right to travel abroad, Perov went there in 1862, visited the major art centers of Germany and spent about a year and a half in Paris. Here he made sketches from life and wrote several paintings depicting local scenes and types of street life ("Seller figurines", "Savoyard", "Organ Grinder," "Beggars on the Boulevard," "The musicians and onlookers", "rag-pickers" and others) but soon realized that playing other people's morals are not given to him just as well as the image of the native Russian life, and so with the permission of the Academy in 1864 he returned to Russia before the deadline.

The main purpose of his trip abroad, in his own words, the improvement was "technically" because, at first hand for a variety of subjects, complex multi-figure compositions, he felt that "in spite of all his desire" can not "perform a single picture, which would be satisfactory. " This trip was a great opportunity to gain new experiences and to meet with the artists who are familiar to the Hermitage, and from contemporary exhibitions, the material of which was no less interesting and instructive to relate their own level with the "European recognized." But he understands complete failure. It was here that he is above all a foreigner fixing "a variety of scenes," a diverse type of another country.