Description of the painting fresh cavalier Fedotov briefly. Pavel Fedotov

“Several times I wanted to get to the source of all these differences. Why am I a titular adviser, why am I a titular adviser? Maybe I'm not a titular adviser at all? Maybe I'm some kind of count or general, but only in this way I seem like a titular adviser. Maybe I don't know who I am yet. After all, there are so many examples from history: some simple, not so much a nobleman, but just some tradesman or even a peasant - and suddenly it turns out that he is some kind of nobleman or baron, or something like him ... "

It seems that at these words the small face of Gogol's Poprishchin, clenched into a fist, suddenly smoothes out, blissful contentment spreads over him, a lively gleam lights up in his eyes, and he becomes taller, and the figure is different - as if he had thrown off his shoulders along with a worn out uniform, a feeling of one’s own insignificance, oppression, one’s wretchedness ...

The plot of the painting "Fresh Cavalier"

Just why did we remember the Gogol hero, considering Fedotov's painting fresh cavalier» ? Here we have an official who celebrated the receipt of the order. In the morning after the feast, not yet having slept properly, he put on his new clothes on his dressing gown and stood in a pose in front of the cook.

Fedotov, apparently, was occupied with a completely different story. But what is a plot for a true artist! Isn’t this a reason, a purely accidental opportunity to fashion such characters, to reveal such sides of human nature, in order to make people sympathize, resent, despise those with whom they encounter as living creatures in a hundred and two hundred years ...

Both Poprishchin and Fedotov's "cavalier" are kindred, close natures for us. One manic passion owns their souls: "Maybe I'm not a titular adviser at all?"

It was said about Fedotov that for some time now he began to live as a recluse. He rented some kind of kennel on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, damp, children are walking from the master's half, children are crying behind the wall - and he works in such a way that it is scary to look: in the evening and at night - by lamps, during the day - in sunlight.

When one of the old acquaintances expressed his surprise, Fedotov began to talk with fervor about the advantages of his present life. He did not notice the inconveniences, they simply did not exist for him. But here, on the 21st line of Vasilyevsky Island, his natural inclination to observation finds constant food, there is more than enough material for creativity - his heroes live around.

It is now that he is determined to start working in oils, to put his first canvases to the public. Of course, these will be pictures of morals, scenes that he has seen in life: one called “The Consequences of a Revel”, the second “The Humpbacked Groom” (as the paintings “The Fresh Cavalier” and “The Picky Bride” were originally called).

In the short hours of rest, Fedotov suffered from pain in his eyes. He put a wet towel to his head and thought about his heroes, first of all about the “cavalier”. The life of officials was familiar to him from childhood, from parental home Moscow.

Here, in St. Petersburg, there is a different spirit - the metropolitan one. New acquaintances of the artist from those who served in different departments, as if they were born officials. How they sit down at a party, take a chair, how they talk to the janitor, how they pay off the cab driver - by all the manners, by the gesture one could guess their rank and possible promotion. On their faces, when they trot to the department in the morning, wrapped in shabby overcoats, one official care, fear of reprimand, and at the same time some kind of self-satisfaction is reflected. Precisely contentment... The desire for all sorts of abstract goods, of course, they regard as stupidity.

And among them there are funny, at least his "cavalier".

Description of the main character of the picture

Fedotov arranged the picture in such a way, saturating it with details so that it could be read as a narrative about the life of this person, a detailed narrative and, as it were, leading the viewer into the depths of the picture, so that the viewer was imbued with the very atmosphere of what was happening, so that he felt like an eyewitness - as if inadvertently the door to He opened it to a neighbor - and that's what his eyes saw. It is tempting and at the same time instructive. Yes, the scene presented to the eyes should teach. The artist believed that he could correct morals, influence human souls.

When one day friends gathered at Fedotov's, and among them the writer A. Druzhinin, the artist began to explain, interpret the meaning of the paintings, as he himself understood them: "uncalculating life." Yes, and in "The Consequences of the Revel" and in "The Hunchbacked Bridegroom" every spectator should see the harm from a careless life.

Before gray hair the bride went through the suitors and now she has to opt for a hunchbacked celadon. And the official! Here he is standing in the pose of a Roman emperor, moreover, barefoot and wearing hairpins. The cook has such power over him that she laughs in his face and almost pokes him in the nose with a holey boot. Under the table, a sleeping companion is a policeman. On the floor are the remains of a feast and a rare guest in the house - a book. Of course, this is Bulgarin's Ivan Vyzhigin. “Where a bad connection has started, there is dirt on a holiday,” Fedotov finished ...

Despite all the difficult circumstances of life, he believed in the initially good nature of people, in the possibility of the degeneration of the most evil and vicious of them; moral filth, vulgarity, he believed, is a consequence of disrespect for oneself.
With his art, he dreamed of returning man to man.

Friends liked the picture of the official to the extreme with its vitality, naturalness. Speaking details that did not obscure the whole, humor and this feature - to captivate, lure into the depths of the picture, make you feel the atmosphere of the event. It seemed to them that the moralizing, edifying interpretation of Fedotov did not reveal the full meaning of the canvas. And time has confirmed this.

Fedotov exhibited the paintings to the public in 1847. The success of "Pirushka" was so great that it was decided to remove the lithograph from the canvas. This made Fedotov extraordinarily happy, because everyone can buy a lithograph, which means that the picture will be able to have an impact on many - this is what he aspired to.

Nothing happened. The censorship demanded that the order be removed from the official's dressing gown, the attitude towards which was considered disrespectful. The artist tries to make a sketch and realizes that the meaning, the whole essence of the picture, is lost. He gave up lithography.

This story became known outside of artistic circles, and when Fedotov exhibited the canvas for the second time in 1849 - and at that time the public's mindset was warmed up by events french revolution- in the picture they saw a kind of challenge to the bureaucracy tsarist Russia denunciation of the social evil of modern life.

Critic V.V. Stasov wrote: “Before you is a smart, stiff nature, a corrupt bribe taker, a soulless slave of his boss, who no longer thinks about anything, except that he will give him money and a cross in his buttonhole. He is fierce and ruthless, he will drown anyone and whatever you want - and not a single wrinkle on his face made of rhinoceros skin will not flinch. Anger, swagger, callousness, idolization of the order as the highest and peremptory argument, completely vulgarized life - all this is present on this face, in this pose and figure of an inveterate official.

...Today we understand the depth of generalization given by the image of the "cavalier", we understand that the genius of Fedotov undoubtedly came into contact with the genius of Gogol. We are pierced by compassion and "poverty of the poor man", for whom happiness in the form new overcoat turns out to be an unbearable burden, and we understand that on the basis of the same spiritual poverty, or rather, complete lack of spirituality, oppression of a non-free person, mania grows.

“Why am I a titular councillor, and why am I a titular councilor?..” Oh, how terrible this face is, with what an unnatural grimace it is distorted!

Gogolevsky Poprishchin, who cut his new uniform into a mantle, is removed by society, isolated. Fedotov’s hero, on the other hand, will probably prosper, rent a brighter apartment for himself, get another cook, and, of course, no one, even in their hearts, will throw to him: “Crazy!” Meanwhile - take a look - the same dehumanized face of a maniac.

Passion for distinction, for rank, for power, lurking latently and growing more and more into a poor, miserable life, eats up, destroys a person.

We peer into "Fresh Cavalier" Fedotov, a whole layer of life is exposed. With plastic clarity, the physiognomy of past centuries is outlined, and in all the depth of generalization, we are faced with a miserable type of complacency,

A genre scene from the life of a poor official holding a small position reflects the very small in size Fedotov's painting "The Fresh Cavalier", which was painted, one might say, in a caricature style in 1847.

And so, this official was presented the day before with his first award - an order - and now in his dreams he is already ascending the career ladder to the very top, presenting himself either as a mayor or as a governor ...

Probably in dreams, the newly-minted cavalier, tossing and turning in pastels for a long time at night, could not fall asleep, all the time remembering his “triumph” at the moment of presenting this expensive award, becoming the envy of his entourage as a cavalier of the order. Morning had barely dawned when the official had already jumped out of bed, throwing on a huge silk robe and wearing an order on it. He proudly and arrogantly assumed the pose of a Roman senator and examines himself in a mirror full of flies.

Fedotov portrays his hero in a somewhat caricatured way, and therefore, looking at the picture, we cannot help but smile a little. The petty official, having received the award, was already dreaming that now he would have a different life, and not the one that was hitherto in this sparsely furnished cluttered little room.

The comical image arises from the sharp contrast between dreams and reality. An employee in a dressing gown worn to holes stands barefoot and in hairpins on his head, but with an order. He brags about it in front of a maid who brought him polished but old boots. It is time for him to get ready for the service, but he really wants to prolong the pleasure of contemplating himself and fruitless fantasies. The maid looks at him condescendingly and mockingly, not even trying to hide it.

A terrible mess reigns in the room, all things are scattered. On a table covered with a light tablecloth with a bright red pattern, you can see sliced ​​sausage, lying not on a plate, but on a newspaper. Nearby are paper curlers and curling irons, which indicates that the hero is trying to look in the fashion of his time.

Bones from a herring, which the man probably ate for dinner, fell under the table. Sherds from broken dishes are also lying around here. The uniform was thrown on the chairs in the evening. On one of them, a thin, disheveled red cat rips through the worn upholstery.

From the painting "The Fresh Cavalier" one can judge the life of petty employees in the first half of the 19th century. She is full of irony. This is the artist's first completed oil painting. According to Fedotov, he depicted in his picture a poor official who receives little maintenance and constantly experiences "poverty and deprivation." This is clearly visible in the picture: variegated furniture, plank floor, worn dressing gown and worn boots. He rents a cheap room, and the maid, most likely, is the master's.

The artist depicts a maid with obvious sympathy. She is not bad-looking, still quite young and neat. She has a pleasant, round, folksy face. And all this emphasizes the contrast between the characters in the picture.

The official is ambitious and swaggering. He assumed the pose of a noble Roman, forgetting that he was wearing a robe, not a toga. Even his gesture, with which he points to his order, is copied from some magazine. His left hand rests on his side, also showing his imaginary "superiority".

Imitating the Greco-Roman heroes, the official stands, leaning on one leg, and proudly throws his head back. It seems that even his papillots sticking out on his head resemble the commander's victorious laurel wreath. He really feels majestic, despite all the wretchedness of his surroundings.

Today, this miniature painting by Pavel Fedotov "The Fresh Cavalier" is on display at the State Tretyakov Gallery. Its size is 48.2 by 42.5 cm. oil on canvas

The painting “The Fresh Cavalier (Morning of the official who received the first cross)” by P. A. Fedotov is the first work in Russian painting household genre, was written in 1847. The canvas was highly appreciated by critics and among the progressive intelligentsia.

In the plot and composition of the picture, the influence of English artists- masters of household genre. On the canvas, we see an official who is hardly coming to his senses the next morning after a fun feast arranged on the occasion of his first order.

The official is depicted in a wretched environment, in an old dressing gown, unshod, with hairpins on his head and with an order fastened directly on the dressing gown. Haughtily and reluctantly, he argues about something with the cook, who shows him the fallen boots.

Before us typical representative of his environment - a corrupt bribe-taker and a slave of his boss. Immensely swaggering, he idolizes the order as if it were evidence of some unseen merit. Probably, in his dreams, he flew very high, but the fervent shout of the cook immediately returns him to his place.

The painting "The Fresh Cavalier" is an accurate reproduction of reality in its entirety. In addition to excellent mastery of writing technique, Fedotov demonstrates the subtlety of psychological characteristics. The artist depicts his hero with amazing sharpness and accuracy. At the same time, it is obvious that the artist, denouncing his character, at the same time sympathizes with him, treats him with mild humor.

In addition to the description of the painting by P. A. Fedotov “The Fresh Cavalier”, our website has collected many other descriptions of paintings by various artists, which can be used both in preparation for writing an essay on a painting, and simply for a more complete acquaintance with the work of famous masters of the past.

I like some paintings because they sincerely show life from the outside with humor. So artists take on the responsibility of teaching all the subtleties of psychology to young, inexperienced generations. One of these paintings belongs to P.A. Fedotov. What vividly illustrates the image of the main character and his environment? What attracts me to the work of the famous painter?

The light falls on young man, who, having received the order the day before, had fun, so much so that his room now resembles the miserable shack of a drunkard. A guitar with broken strings, empty bottles lying on the floor, all these attributes of the past happy holiday, testify to the correctness of my assumptions. The maid who comes chuckles at him, reprimands him for the mess and shows him the holes in his boots. Main character pays no attention to her words. When he received the order, he became proud. Protruding his lower lip like a child, he points with his finger at his robe, where his award hangs on his chest. This is what he said. And he does not intend to stoop to pay his precious attention to such low man. Nor is she a decree to him.

The appearance of the official tells that this person is only interested in how he looks. No matter how drunk he was yesterday, he did not forget to “decorate” his head with papillots. This character trait of his is also evidenced by the presence of a mirror, curling irons, combs and other hygiene products on the table. Right there on the newspaper there is a sliced ​​​​sausage and a decanter with something of alcohol.

The whole room is littered like confetti with fragments of a broken plate, parts of a broken chair. It is not clear how a cat and a cage with a bird appeared in this fuss. But they also complemented the interior of a cramped room. Another figure explains the scope of the holiday and the personality of the main character of the picture - a colleague of our official, who fell asleep under the desk. The satire of the artist is always relevant. And even though it’s fun to look at the picture, you just have to think about the fact that such a hero lives at all times, and you can meet him in any millennium, it immediately becomes sad.

Pavel FEDOTOV
FRESH CAVALIER
(Morning of an official who received the first cross the day before)
1846. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

C gentleman”, or “Morning of the official who received the first cross” - a picture in which Fedotov first turned to oil technology. Perhaps that is why the work on it was carried out for quite a long time, although the idea was formed a long time ago, back in the sepia series. New technology contributed to the emergence of a new impression - complete realism, materiality of the depicted world. Fedotov worked on the painting as if he were painting a miniature, paying attention the smallest details, without leaving a single fragment of space unfilled (for which critics later reproached him).

The action takes place in a cramped little room, crammed to capacity with broken furniture, broken dishes and empty bottles. Fedotov uses every detail to describe the character and habits of the person living here, right down to the title of the novel he is reading (“Ivan Vyzhigin” by F. Bulgarin - quite popular at that time, but a low-quality book). The remains of yesterday's "ceremonial" dinner eloquently flaunt on the table - a decanter of vodka, pieces of sausage, a candle end with tongs mixed with toiletries.

Under one table, a dog sleeps serenely, and under another - no less serene - one of the participants in yesterday's feast, sleepily watching the scene unfolding in front of him. In the midst of this chaos, the figure of a newly-made order bearer proudly rises. Apparently, in his dreams, “he ascended higher as the head of the recalcitrant pillar of alexandria, draped in a greasy robe, as in an antique toga, and imagines himself to be nothing less than the greatest hero of antiquity. A leg protruding forward, an arrogant look, a proudly raised head ... He is downright puffed up with pride and swagger, and he is not at all embarrassed that his appearance - in papillottes and a stale dressing gown - somewhat does not correspond to the traditional idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe ancient hero.

And the cook demonstrates her leaky soles to her master, not at all paying attention to the new order. She knows his price, and it is she who is the true mistress in this house. “Where a bad connection has started, there and in great holiday dirt ... "- this is how Fedotov begins a poetic explanation for his picture, alluding to the "hazing" of an official and a servant.

Morning of an official who received the first cross the day before.
Sketch. 1844. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The famous critic Vladimir Stasov saw a tragic and even scary content in the comic scene: “He is fierce and ruthless,” he writes about the main character, “he will drown anyone and whatever he wants, and not a single wrinkle on his face will flinch. Anger, swagger, completely vulgar life - all this is present in this face, in this pose and the figure of an inveterate official in a dressing gown and barefoot, in hairpins and with an order on his chest.

However, Fedotov himself was still not so unambiguous about his work. Yes, he sharply ridicules his hero, but at the same time justifies and pities him in some way. In any case, Fedotov’s letter to Count Musin-Pushkin has been preserved: “... isn’t it natural that where there is constant scarcity and deprivation, there the expression of the joy of the reward will come to childishness to rush around with it day and night.”

Perhaps one should believe the opinion of Benois, who believed that, in essence, Fedotov was always at the same time with his heroes ...