Description of the picture:
Threshing floor – Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov. 1821/1822. Canvas, oil. 66.5×80.5
Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov (1780-1847) – the initiator of the everyday genre in Russian painting. The theme of his work was the harmony of the world of nature and peasant life, poeticized and ennobled. Having abandoned his service in the capital, Venetsianov moved to the village, where, observing the life of the peasants, he created a series of works full of idealism and ingenuous upland.
The threshing floor is lovingly depicted by the artist. Stage scenes, built by the painter on the canvas, present the viewer with the views of daily peasant labor, but there is no hint of the severity and routine of life in the village. The actions captured by the artist are not so dynamic, seemingly extrajudicial, contemplative in nature, thereby raising the theme of labor to its epic reading. Each resident of the village makes a small contribution to the cultivation of common land and harvesting. The theme of agriculture and fertility in the works of Venetsianov acquires a sacred sound.
Compared to the historical paintings of contemporaries on antique themes (paintings by F.A. Bruni, K.P. Bryullov, A.P. Losenko and others), Venetsianov’s paintings became a true discovery for the metropolitan public of the first half of the 19th century. The art school created by the master for gifted young people (including serfs) belongs to the cultural phenomena of this time."
