Description of the painting by Vasily Maximov “Who is there?”

Description of the painting by Vasily Maximov Who is there?

The picture of the 19th century Russian artist Vasily Maksimovich Maximov “Who is there?” Can be seen today at the exposition in the Ryazan Regional Art Museum.

The picture tells the viewer about the domestic story of peasant life. In a simple peasant hut near the door stands a peasant girl or a peasant woman and listens attentively to the sounds emanating from the closed door. Perhaps she is waiting for her night guest or, on the contrary, afraid of the sudden visit of a stranger.

The heroine is young and beautiful, a little plump, with a long light-brown braid. She is dressed in traditional peasant clothes: a white shirt, a sundress with embroidered red motifs, and a white apron, beads around her neck, it seems that she deliberately dressed up for a date with someone. However, the heroine is standing without shoes, and her face, turned toward the front door, looks frightened. The peasant woman has locked the entrance door with a grip, threw a smut on the wooden floor from the stove, which indicates not only her fear, but even fear.

At the same time, despite the poverty of the environment (we see the stove sanctified by the torch, the pot standing on it, other objects of the uncomplicated peasant life), the picture itself conveys an atmosphere of romantic anticipation of something terrible, but attractive. Perhaps this effect arises from the fact that the heroine is young, beautiful in particular Russian beauty and completely alone.

Her figure, frozen in anxious anticipation, arouses sympathy and desire in the viewer to find out what still alarmed this young peasant. However, the author gives his viewers the right to themselves interpret the plot of the canvas, which gives his picture an additional charm and charm.


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Description of the painting by Vasily Maximov “Who is there?”