Title of Painting "Slender Man on the Volga"
Creator Ilya Efimovich . Leben (Russia)
Date of creation 1870-1873
Style Critical Realism
Size 131.5×281cm
Material Oil on canvas
Depository St. Petersburg Collection of the Russian State Museum of Fine Arts
Background
One of the most remarkable critical realist paintings of the early 1880s, "The Slender Man on the Volga", is a masterpiece of critical realism, a masterpiece of oil painting, a masterpiece of painting. One of the finest masterpieces of critical realism of the early 1880s was Levin's Slender Man on the Volga. This painting was completed before he was awarded a study tour to Austria, France and Italy at public expense (he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts for his graduation work, the painting The Resurrection of the Orbiter's Daughter), and was the first artistic manifestation of his ideas of democratization and revolution.
In the 1860s, the peasant movement in Russia was in full swing, but the remnants of serfdom in the country were still a serious obstacle to the development of Russian capitalism. In February 1861, Tsar Alexander II finally decreed the abolition of serfdom, thanks to a strong democratic liberation movement involving the common intellectuals. However, the deep-rooted forces of feudal exploitation did not give way, and the miserable conditions of the Russian peasantry did not improve.
In 1869, still in his student days, Leben went to the Neva River for a picnic, and saw a scene that surprised him: in the distance, some black, shiny oil things crawling forward, and closer to realize that the original is a group of sets of ropes in the pulling of the flat-bottomed cargo boats of the slender man. He was shaken by the image of those disheveled and disheveled men in their clothes. The heavy labor of the slender men on the Neva River also aroused Levin's sympathy, and from that time on, he wanted to paint a piece of work showing the drudgery-like labor of the slender men, in order to hint at the painful life of the lower class of working people and the inequality of the society. in the summer of 1870, Levin went to the Volga River again for sketching with his classmate, Vasilyev (who later painted paintings about the slender men) and was impressed by the typical Russian scenery and the life of the slender men. The typical Russian landscapes and the life of slender men left an unforgettable impression on him. In order to create this painting, Leben spent three years, made two trips to the Volga River, and the Slender Man friends, the Slender Man life for a long time to observe a lot of observation and sketching, and finally finally completed this piece of world-renowned masterpieces, with a strong spirit of realism.
In 1873, the critic Stasov commented on this painting and its author in a magazine: "Leben is a realist like Gogol, and also has a profound national character like him. He plunged headlong into the deepest depths of the reality of people's lives, people's interests, people's sadness with bravery, with a bravery that is incomparable to ours... ...... In terms of the layout and presentation of the painting, Leben is a brilliant, powerful artist and thinker! ". Indeed, this oil painting can be called the peak of critical realism art in the 70s, both in terms of ideology and technique.
Works Appreciation
"Slender Man on the Volga" is the masterpiece of Levin and his famous work. In the composition of this painting, Leben used the topography of the beach and the bend of the river bay, so that eleven slender men as if a group of statues, was shaped in a yellow, high up on the base, so that the painting has a grand and far-reaching tension, the background of the painting using the color of the dim and misty, empty space peculiar, give a person a sense of despair, loneliness, helpless, and effectively in-depth into the depths of the slender man's mind, but also a true reflection of the painter's state of mind, which reflects the purpose of the painting. It is also a true reflection of the artist's state of mind, which plays a great role in the embodiment of the purpose of the painting and the accentuation of the emotion. In the picture, the artist has skillfully arranged the scenery of the Volga River, showing the rows of slender men in a long and narrow banner. Volga River sunshine, the beach is deserted, near the scene only buried in the sand a few broken baskets for decoration. The landscape is very bleak. A team of slenders dressed in rags is pulling a cargo boat, and their steps are so heavy that they seem to be able to hear the echoes of the depressingly low "Volga Boatmen's Song". Therefore, the composition, lines, brushwork and other painting techniques are quite successful.
On the bank of the river, scorched by the hot sun, a group of disheveled, ragged fiberglass men dragged their heavy feet and pulled the cargo boat, struggling forward under the scorching sun with exhaustion. They were both young and old, all dressed in rags and with haggard faces. The leader is an old man with a white beard, his eyes are deep-set, and his resolute face reveals his weathered wisdom, but his sad expression still shows his helplessness to the hard life.
Walking at the end of the fiberglass man with his head down and his hands hanging down, numbly moving forward with the team, seems to have been accustomed to such a day to day hard labor like life. There is a more prominent image of the team, is in the middle of the team of a teenager, you can see that he just started this work soon, frowning is not quite accustomed to, he straightened up his waist to use his hands to loosen the shoulder tight rope, after all, young, not willing to put up with such suffering. The rest of the fiberglass workers are bent over and lowered their heads, seems to have no extra strength to show something, in their bodies, the only thing left is poverty, hardship and helplessness. In this painting reflecting the hard life of the slender man, rather than man and nature in the fight, it is more like a man with the cruelty of the dark fate and social struggle.
The painting of the slender man *** there are 11 people, roughly divided into three groups. Each image has been carefully scrutinized by Leben, painted character sketches. Their age, experience, character, physical strength, as well as their spirituality varies. The artist highly typified these personalities and united them in the theme. Now according to the painter's own account, respectively, to detail the situation of each character here:
The first group of *** four people, the leader of the name of Gunning, his expression of meekness, however, the character of toughness, with a kind of inner strength of will, this person is about forty or fifty years old. His deep-set eyes emphasized his forehead and showed his intelligence. Levin added a piece of rag to his head, as if to make him look like an ancient Greek philosopher. Originally a priest, he was dismissed from the church, and for a time was the conductor of the church choir. His body was solid, and his arms hung down. The slender cord around his chest was taut, while his linen shirt was full of patches. This is a typical Russian peasant elder or wise man, who endured physical and mental pain, and is the tragic protagonist in these images of slender men. On his right is a stout simple peasant man, he is barefoot, hair disheveled, full of thick beard, seems to be in low to Gunning rambling about something. This figure served to set off Gunning's forward leaning body. Behind him is a slender, thin man, nearly 40 years old, with most of his body blocked. He wears a straw hat and holds a clay pipe, and his head appears smaller and pointier. He stood up straight so that he could loosen the slender cords, as if trying to save his strength. On the left side of this thin man, there is a bowed back bending fiber man, he was a sailor, called Ikar. His hands were clasped together downwards, and he looked stern, with his eyes fixed and directed straight ahead. Obviously, he must have a stubborn temper, a rural hard man Yu. Sweat has corroded his shirt to a hundred holes and dry sores, and his sturdy shoulders are showing through the holes.
The middle group is also four people: a teenager wearing a pink torn shirt and pants named Larika. It seems that this teenager is a newcomer to the ranks, and his untanned skin and furrowed brow tell the viewer that this kind of labor is too much for him. He is using it to regulate the cords on his shoulders, which are painful to the skin. The artist seems to find in this new oppressed person a hope that he is not willing to be exploited, but to resist. It is striking that there is a cross hanging around the neck of this young man, which is a token given by the parents to their children, praying that God will bless him with a safe journey. For the painting of this teenage fiberglass man, Levin had from his familiar image of a child selected as a model. The phenomenon of the young man pulling the fiber, as cruel as the capitalists use child labor to extract labor, this is the evil of serfdom in tsarist Russia, but also the main target of the painter to attack. Immediately behind Larika, is a weather-beaten bald old man, his skin to help black, gloomy face, while leaning on the rope, while opening his own tobacco pouch, want to steal a smoke to relieve their own misery. He and the young man in front of him constitute a strong contrast in color. Two generations, different destinies, but tied to a rope. To the right of the young man is a frail and sickly fiberglass operator, who walks with difficulty, his whole body is weak, and he is sweating with the cuffs of his sleeves. His hair is exposed on the outside of his brimless hat, his cheekbones are raised, his tear ducts are oedematous, and it seems to us that we can hear him gasping for breath as his journey ahead spells even greater doom. Between Larika and the old man, the top of the head of another slender man was revealed, a man with a blackened face, nostrils turned outward, and thick lips, a tartar by the look of him.
The last group of three, walking in front of a retired soldier, a white shirt with a kangaroo outside, hat pressed low; behind a dark-skinned, traveling exhibition of painting school critic Stasov said he was a wandering Greek. Only the top of the head of the last man is visible, and the man seems to be struggling even more as he moves up a small slope. The upper half of the painting is blank in shades of pale green, violet, and dark brown, making the Volga River seem even more bleak. This is to enhance the tragedy of the characters, and to emphasize the dry and hot weather (Levin had made some changes in the characters of Gunning and Ikar, especially Ikar's head wrapped in white cloth was changed the most).
The charred riverbanks, the empty sky, the blue water, and the heavy-footed men struggling for survival depicted in Slender Man on the Volga have influenced the artistic imagination of several generations of Chinese
Author's biography
Levin (ИльЯ ЕфИМОВИЧ РеПИН, 1844-1930), was the first Chinese artist to write a book on the Volga, which was published in 1844.
In all of his works, Lepin always sketched carefully, sought the most typical environments and characters, and meticulously depicted and scrutinized them, so his works appeared to be extremely vivid and touching, and added a new language to Russian customary paintings, which were regarded as a true reflection of the life of the Russian society. After the October Revolution, the town of Chuguev in the Russian border province of Kharkov was transferred to Finnish territory as a result of the signing of the "Soviet-Finnish Treaty". Lenin had written many times to ask him to return to the motherland, but ultimately due to old age and failed to travel, until September 1930 died in his hometown.