Creativity N. Kasatkin was one of the final stages in the development of the pictorial art of the Wanderers. The artist’s paintings have brought to the world new images, new heroes, characteristic for the coming era of socio-political changes.
Kasatkin paid much attention to the life of the young, rapidly developing Russian proletariat. The poor life of the poor working people has been familiar to the artist since childhood. Sincerely respecting the people of labor, he sought to dedicate his work to a truthful depiction of their hard life with her sorrows and joys. At the same time Kasatkin’s special interest evoked the life of miners. The artist even visited the Donets Basin several times to better understand and more accurately convey to the canvas the sides of the life of the workers of coal mines. At first, the miners treated the uninvited guest incredulously. Alarmed by rumors that in fact Kasatkin was a secret king’s detective, they even planned to adjust the accident – throw the artist into the mine. But after they found a common language with him, became friends and even took pictures together.
Surrounded by a cohesive team of workers and workers of the Donetsk basin, Kasatkin created images that were beautiful in their strength and faith in the bright future. The most successful among them were images of women. A striking example of this is the modest size, but rich in spiritual content, “Miner”.
A small etude painted from life takes an honorable place in the collection of outstanding paintings of the Tretyakov Picture Gallery. In the center of the canvas is depicted a young girl, a toiler of the Donbas mines. In her mocking look, proud and at the same time relaxed pose read calm self-confidence and her own strengths – a distinctive feature of the rising Russian working class. Incredibly charming, radiating inner warmth and inexhaustible energy, a young miner conquers the viewer at first sight. Sweet and feminine on the one hand and resolute and brisk on the other, she bewitches her spontaneity and openness.
To reveal the complex inner world of the heroine of the picture, to show her feelings and thoughts is the task Kasatkin set himself, creating the “Miner”. The composition of the painting selected by the artist worked on the solution of the problem: the figure of the worker is almost close to the frame, the miner is the main image that occupies most of the canvas area. Kasatkin uses the minimum of the situation, paying all attention to the transfer of live plastic of a clean face and female hands, prescribing the rest of the details in a generalized manner.
On the miner is an old shabby gray jacket and once light, pouring out over time a skirt, timidly peeping out from under a dark shapely apron. But the apparent poverty of the outfit is not evident – the master’s hand showed not the wretchedness and simplicity of the dress, but its picturesque wealth.
The color palette of the picture is not very diverse and bright. The prevailing tone is gray, the typical color of all mine sites. But a simple gray will of the artist turns on canvas in a scattering of shades – here and heavy smoky gray, and light pearl, and gray-blue, and almost black. Beauty, revealed in simplicity, gives the image an elegant charm and inner light. The character of the heroine depicted corresponds to the casual manner of writing, with the accuracy of the figure being verified, in which the picture is executed. Together they form an integral, harmonious and complete image.
Kasatkin rightly called the artist-innovator, who created culturally advanced works. Optimism and faith in oneself, the physical and spiritual beauty of the working man are the main features of the heroes of the newly born state. “Miner” and the images similar to her, written by Kasatkin, became the starting point in the formation and development of Soviet painting, a new world of feelings and ideas.
(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)