Description of the painting by Pavel Fedotov “Legible Bride”

Description of the painting by Pavel Fedotov Legible Bride

Pavel Andreevich Fedotov painted the canvas “Legible Bride” in 1847. The canvas tells the viewer a whole plot. This contributes to the deliberately stiff atmosphere of the room, the unnaturally emotional expressions of the characters acting and some comicity of their positions.

In the center of the picture is a middle-aged lady, elegantly seated, with a courteous condescension and deceptive doubt on her face. Her figure is slightly turned towards her interlocutor, who is holding her hand. This provision demonstrates the extreme interest of the woman in the cavalier, who placed her in a kneeling pose. Her hands are finished off by a middle-aged hunchback, who with a prayer digs into her face. He is trying to understand whether it is possible that such a beautiful lady would agree to associate her fate with him.

Although he is smartly dressed – an expensive, well-cut jacket hides his massive hump on his

back – he still understands how small his chances of successfully resolving the case. But how wrong he is. The process is monitored by the parents of the woman, they are glaring at her with obvious impatience and hope. It seems that this bride is no longer accepting the first contender for her hand and she has no choice left. She simply stretches her time before agreeing to entrust her fate to this ugly old man, who in a fit of feelings even dropped his shiny top hat and gloves to the floor.

The woman herself is aware of the need for consent. Her face has a scarlet color. This gives an abundance of cosmetics, which she put on the face before taking the groom. Powder and thick blush on the cheeks are designed to hide age-related changes on the face of the bride and divert attention from dry, aging skin.

The author of the canvas gracefully emphasized the similarity of the future spouses. As far as the groom is disgusting in appearance, so is his arrogant, selfish spouse black inside. It seems that together they form a perfect union.


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Description of the painting by Pavel Fedotov “Legible Bride”