The painting “Moscow Yard” for the young artist Vasily Polenov was her debut work as a participant in the Wanderers’ Exhibitions. He did not consider the sketch written from the windows of his own Moscow apartment to be anything significant, calling the work “a picture depicting a courtyard in Moscow at the beginning of summer.” But thanks to this “picture”, fame and fame came to the artist, and the canvas itself became the favorite for every Russian person.
A typical corner of XIX century Moscow: mansions and simpler houses in the neighborhood, the domes of churches glittering in the sun, the courtyard covered with thick green grass, the spiritual provincial lifestyle. Sunny summer day. Morning. Light clouds glide over the blue sky smoothly. On one of the paths of the lawn to the well is a peasant girl, carefully carrying a bucket. Nearby, fearing no one, the chickens are busy digging. Basking in the sun, standing, shifting from foot to foot, harnessed to a horse cart.
Ready to go on the road at any moment, she peacefully awaits her master. On the middle ground – little kids. Two of them started a funny romp on the green grass. One baby is sitting away from them and crying, but no one pays attention to him. Closer to the edge – the older girl in a long skirt and white shirt enthusiastically examines a plucked flower. Everyone is busy with his business. The daily bustle, beautiful in its daily life, the clear serenity of the landscape is the main charm of the picture.
Vasily Polenov managed to fill the most everyday things with poetry. Everything, from leaning buildings, lush green carpet to crooked birch trees and fair-haired children, is written with a love of nature, people and life. It was this inexhaustible power of love that allowed the artist to reveal to the viewer the beauty of the usual, to fill with the feeling of a joyful quiet holiday an ordinary weekday.
Something inexplicable in words, native and close, living in a person from an early age is hidden in this picture. Therefore, it still remains dear and beloved.
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