Description of the painting by Mikhail Vrubel “Oriental Tale”

Description of the painting by Mikhail Vrubel Oriental Tale

The picture was painted on paper on cardboard in 1886.

Technique: watercolor, white, varnish.

Vrubel left us a great pictorial heritage that allows us to know all the skills of the author. “Oriental Tale” is truly a piece of jewelry, because all the details are written down to the smallest details. The canvas gained great popularity among artists.

Her story of creation was that Vrubel received an order from the Kiev patron. Work for the collector Tereshchenko took the artist more than a year, but, nevertheless, he did not finish it. He received the money, but for the fact that the work was not done, he made compensation to the customer in the form of the canvas “A Girl Against a Persian Carpet”.

The very story of the Eastern Tale was formed in the thoughts of Vrubel under the impression of the Tales of Scheherazade, which he heard in the French performance in the house of his friends Prahovs. At this moment, a luxurious Persian carpet was reclining on them, which additionally influenced the future creation of the canvas. Vrubel focused on a wonderful, rich carpet. The plot depicts a scene in the padishah tent. As you know, they have a tradition for centuries to have many women – harem.

Vrubel’s picture describes an event in which the main character is the noble owner of the tent, with his numerous wives. One of them is beautiful and dark-skinned, jealously looking at her husband’s new darling, who, in turn, looked down shyly and stands before them.

To accurately prescribe the details, the artist used the method of fine-applied deposition. The canvas is filled with deep saturated colors that create the effect and brilliance of the mosaic. It is simultaneously beautiful, restless and tragic, shows the wealth of the countries of the East and their harsh traditions.

The painting is in storage in the Kiev Museum of Russian Art.


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Description of the painting by Mikhail Vrubel “Oriental Tale”