Two dates and two destinies in Russian art

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the works of Pavel Andreevich Fedotov, a Russian artist. This year we celebrate a bicentennial of this artist whose works open an epoch of critical realism in the Russian pictorial arts. The article discusses some famous pieces by the artist: “Newly Decorated (The morning after the official has first decoration)”, “Major’s Marriage Proposal”, “Encore, Encore!”, “Winter Day. The 20th Line of the Vasiljevskii Island”, a portrait of Nadezhda Zhdanovich and a portrait of Countess Rostopchina. The article also suggests the analysis of a literary piece in critical realism style — a comedy by Evdokiya Pavlovna Rostopchina “Chatskij’s Return to Moscow”. The comedy was published in Moscow a hundred and fifty years ago, in 1865, and this event and this date are both worth mentioning. As the works of these two outstanding representatives of Russian culture, P. A. Fedotov and E. P. Rostopchina, mark a deep insight of life and behavioral pattern of the Russian citizens in the first half of the 19th century, that led to the appearance and further development of art works dedicated specifically to people, with their worries and complicated hidden inside worlds.

Keywords:

P. A. Fedotov, “Newly Decorated (The morning after the official has received his first decoration)”, “Major’s Marriage Proposal”, “Encore, Encore!”, “Winter Day. The 20th Line of the Vasiljevskii Island”, portrait of Nadezhda Zhdanovich, portrait of Countess Rostopchina, E. P. Rostopchina, comedy “Chatskiy’s Return to Moscow”