Description of the painting by Nikolai Pymonenko “Matchmakers”

Description of the painting by Nikolai Pymonenko Matchmakers

Ukrainian painter, very enthusiastically portrayed exactly Ukrainian culture, its customs, traditions and way of life, thus, before our eyes there is another of his paintings, entitled “Matchmakers”. It must be said that from the side of ethnographic accuracy, the Ukrainian rite depicted in the picture is executed as perfectly as possible.

In this picture, the viewer can see quite a common thing, and even a somewhat traditional act, which is called matchmaking. We see the matchmakers sit, they are tied up with special towels and communicate with the woman. A woman is the mother of a girl who sits at a distance, as it has been supposed to do for centuries. The national clothes in which the heroes of the painting are dressed are depicted in an amazing manner.

In the same way, the rather accurate drawing of the typical housing of that time is also striking. It is worth noting that, despite the apparent emptiness in the room, this is not an invention of the author; at that time, everything that should be in the kitchen is a table, a stove and benches. It is no coincidence that the author draws perfectly the icons that stand on top of the dining table, in the past he had a lot of experience in icon painting and woodcarving, so the icons are very high quality and reliable.

The master very reliably conveys all the colors, which makes the canvas more realistic and true from the point of view of the plot transmission. It is also worth noting the amazing play of light that penetrates the room through two windows and illuminates everything, thus the master actually plays with shadow and highlights on some surfaces and people. The accuracy of drawing individual ethnic details allows not only to view the icons, but even to see patterns on the clothes and towels that hang over the icons.


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Description of the painting by Nikolai Pymonenko “Matchmakers”