Unequal marriage is what this picture is about. Painting "Unequal Marriage" by Pukirev: history of creation and description

Vasily Vladimirovich Pukirev, “ Unequal marriage»

V.V. was born. Pukirev in a peasant family. Feeling a calling to painting, Vasily began studying with one of the Mogilev icon painters. In the second half of the 1840s. he ends up in Moscow and after some time (in 1847) he enters the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where, as he acquires the necessary skills, he becomes an excellent draftsman.

Having successfully completed the course in 1858, Pukirev earned his living by painting icons and portraits, and soon returned to his native school as a drawing teacher.

In 1860 he received the title of academician for his large portrait sketch “Girl”. And in 1863, “Unequal Marriage” (1862) appeared at an academic exhibition, and the whole of Russia recognized Pukirev’s name, since the picture caused heated controversy in the press. The artist managed to create a picture that was literally “doomed” to success. The work attracted everyone's attention and caused the most controversial opinions.

Unequal marriage. How much grief and cruel suffering such marriages brought to their victims! How many tragedies they gave rise to in past times! It is no coincidence that the theme of unequal marriage has come through everything Russian art. In mournful, filled with sadness folk songs A Russian woman cried about her bitter lot.

Many outstanding masters words, brushes, and music were captivated by this theme with its tragedy. A.S. Pushkin touched on it in the story “Dubrovsky”. The tragedy of the Russian woman is reflected with enormous force in a number of works by the great interpreter of folk life A.N. Ostrovsky (“Dowry”, “Thunderstorm”). And finally, this topic received its deepest social understanding in the works of N.A. Nekrasova. What an inescapable pain the lines about the hard lot of women sound in such works as the poem “Rural Sorrow” or in the poems “Who Lives Well in Rus'” and “Frost, Red Nose.”

The motive for unequal marriage, drawn from life itself, came to art much later than in literature, in the 1860s, during an era of rapid social upsurge. It was during these years that Pukirev began his creative path, belonging to the glorious galaxy of those sixties who laid the foundations of art critical realism. Coming from a peasant family, Pukirev, who knew well folk life, was captured by the general democratic movement and reflected in his best works the thoughts and feelings that worried advanced people his time. The painting “Unequal Marriage” can be called the pinnacle of the artist’s creativity.

The dimly lit parish church. Objects of church utensils are drowning in the surrounding darkness. Only when you look closely do you notice the intricate bronze curls of the heavy chandelier, the dull gleaming gilding on the royal doors and the silhouettes of dark icons barely visible on them. A strong stream of light, falling from an invisible source somewhere to the left, from outside the canvas, bursts into the darkness, harshly illuminating the central group - the groom, the bride and the priest.

Everything speaks very clearly about an unequal marriage. This is clear to the viewer at first glance at the picture. What brought here such a young girl, so touching in her charm and purity, what made her connect her life with an old man? Dry prudence and callous selfishness shine through the features of his face. He is a man without a heart, without a soul, and the marriage into which he enters is nothing more than the whim of an elderly sensualist, the willfulness of a rich tyrant. Already now cold words are ready to escape from his half-open lips, cruel words, the condemning tears and despair of his poor bride.

The artist based his work on the painting on a real event - the story of the unhappy love of Pukirev's friend SM. Varentsova. A year before the creation of the picture, a wealthy manufacturer, already quite elderly, became engaged to a young girl from a poor family, a certain S.N. Rybnikova, beloved SM. Varentsova. For some reason, the girl married not her loved one, but a rich manufacturer, and her lover had the role of best man at this wedding.

Taking as a basis real event, the artist did not limit himself to his protocol image. He subordinated the fact of life to his creative plan, based on social generalization. Pukirev made the groom much older and more decrepit than he actually was, while the bride looks almost like a child. The blatant injustice of unequal marriage began to be perceived with visual conviction. In addition, trying to convey the negative properties of the hero, Pukirev turns him from a manufacturer into a civilian general-official, from whom something bureaucratic, dry, and prim emanates. How sharp and unpleasant are the deep wrinkles of his long, callous, decrepit face! It seems especially motionless and frozen, pinched by a tight and rigid collar. On the groom’s neck is the Order Cross of Vladimir, II degree, and on his chest the star corresponding to this order shines. He is filled with a sense of his own importance. Seeing the tears of the bride, he did not even turn his head in her direction and, only squinting his eyes, whispered to her his annoyance.

For the same purpose of contrast, Pukirev painted an image of a young bride full of charm. The gentle oval of her pretty face, silky brown hair, graceful small mouth - everything about her is full of girlish charm. She seems especially touching and pure in her wedding dress. In sharp contrast to the priest’s stiff robe, the transparent muslin of her veil and the delicate foam of the lace of her dress seem almost weightlessly light.

The best man's face was easily recognizable - Pukirev painted it from life. In the other man, to the right of the bride, one can discern the features of the artist himself.

Until the last moment, the girl must have hoped for something that would prevent this terrible marriage for her. Now that the wedding ceremony is coming to an end, there is nothing more to wait for. Lowering her tear-stained eyes with eyelids swollen from tears, not looking at the priest, she, almost losing strength, slowly, as if half asleep, not noticing that the candle she holds in her fallen hand is almost touching the flame of her dress, extends her other hand the priest so that he is heavy wedding ring forever shackled her fate with this alien, unloved man. The painting was bought by P.M. Tretyakov, the Academy of Arts awarded Puki-rev the title of professor of painting of folk scenes.

In 1873, the artist became seriously ill and was forced to leave teaching. In 1879, his colleagues secured a modest pension for him. But there was not enough money, painting was not successful. Pukirev sold his collection of paintings and changed apartments. His character, previously friendly and gentle, also changed. In 1890, the half-forgotten artist died in poverty.

AFORIZMY.RU - Literary website of Gennady Volovoy
The best authors of modern Russian literature, aphorisms, parables, anecdotes.
www.aphorisms.ru

UNEQUAL MARRIAGE - LIES AND TRUTH

“Hypocrisy is a knowledge of our society.
Hypocrisy is a conspiracy of the greedy.
Hypocrisy is the banner of a woman..."
(Gennady Volovoy)

The painting “Unequal Marriage” by Vasily Vladimirovich Pukirev first appeared at the exhibition in 1863, simultaneously with “The Last Supper” by N.N.Ge. Pukirev’s painting immediately attracted the attention of the public, who admired the artist’s work. In the same year, the artist received the title of professor. And today it attracts the attention of viewers in the Tretyakov Gallery, who look with pleasure at the splendor of the colors of a bygone era.

The picture was painted with a certain meaning. And surprisingly, this meaning is not revealed either by critics or viewers. Everyone enters into a silent conspiracy to hide the truth and interpret the picture in a way that would please everyone. As a result of such silence, a bad tradition has already developed of talking not about what is actually depicted, but about the cruelty of society, forcing a young maiden to marry a disgusting old man...

Here is this picture in front of you. Look at it, think about it, draw conclusions... Free your mind from routine, look straight into the eyes of the truth and it will tell you the whole truth about the artist’s true intention...

What did you see?.. A selfish old man who marries a poor and unhappy girl, forced by force of circumstances to tie the knot with an unloved? Heartbroken young man who lost his beloved for the sake of inert society.. What a beautiful and sweet lie!.. Another myth that society creates to hide its vices!

Let us consider the traditional view, which was established in public opinion, and which determines the ideology of the picture.

“The plot of the picture is a life drama that was not uncommon at that time: an unequal marriage. A young girl is married off to a rich old man. The bride’s appearance is charming: she has still unformed, childishly soft facial features, beautiful eyes. The bride is pale, she is probably close to fainting. The elderly groom makes an unpleasant impression: he has expressionless dull eyes, disgustingly protruding lips. This man is used to giving orders. The girl's fate is easy to predict: she will become a toy in the house of a rich and powerful old man. "(essay based on a painting, Internet)

The viewer’s imagination depicts powerful and greedy parents who forced her to marry a rich official. I immediately remember Pushkin's Dubrovsky... Poor Masha, who was excommunicated from the noble robber...

A decrepit but still handsome old man marries a young girl, almost a child. The groom is an important nobleman, a general official. On the groom's neck is the Order Cross of Vladimir, II degree, and the star corresponding to this order. He is filled with a sense of his own importance. And the bride, pale, unhappy, after a night of crying tears, can barely stand on her feet, and it seems that, exhausted, she will simply faint or sit down exhausted right in front of the priest.

There is a blatant injustice of an unequal marriage!.. O viewer, be horrified by this picture of injustice. A blooming child ties the knot of marriage with a callous and withered old man! The priest obligingly bowed down before the arrogant official and served him cloyingly. He sees that the young girl does not want to get married, but he does not heed God’s instructions for free expression of will; he is subject to the same spirit of acquisitiveness. About the same as Pushkin’s Masha in Dubrovsky, who was literally carried into the church and married to the old womanizer, whom Pushkin elevated to noble hero. He is good because he is rich, and because he is brave - he shoots at robbers when they overtake him on the road. But nevertheless, in this and other cases, the priest violates his direct duties and crowns people who have not agreed on their desires, crowns people when one of the parties is forced to unite the bonds of marriage against their will...

The priest puts a wedding ring on the frozen finger of the dead hand of a grief-stricken girl, blessing a loveless marriage, or in other words, an arranged marriage where everyone wins. The priest will receive his profit, the courtier will receive a young beauty, the parents will receive a good ransom for the bride, the only victims here are love, which is thrown as a sacrifice to gold.

““Unequal Marriage” is a mature and completely finished picture by Pukirev. The author’s thought, his idea is immediately recognizable. Everything here is thought out, everything is balanced.”
What exactly?.. A young girl was forced against her will to marry an old man, separated from her beloved. We feel sorry for the girl, we feel sorry for the unfortunate young man, we feel sorry for the fact that love has been destroyed by this cruel and unfair world, where only self-interest and calculation reign!.. The curtain closes, the viewer wipes away his tears!..

“Until the last moment, the girl must have hoped for something that would prevent this terrible marriage for her. Now, when the wedding ceremony is coming to an end, there is nothing more to wait for. Lowering her tear-stained eyes with eyelids swollen from tears, without looking at the priest, she , almost losing strength, slowly, as if half asleep, not noticing that the candle she holds in her fallen hand is almost touching the flame of her dress, she extends her other hand to the priest so that with a heavy wedding ring he will forever chain her fate with this stranger to her , an unloved person." (from www.rodon.org)

Masha was waiting for her liberator Dubrovsky in approximately the same way, but bad luck, he was late, did not show up on time (not without the help of the author, of course) and therefore, alas, fate separates them. But in the picture the situation is different. Our heroine’s beloved is standing nearby and can prevent the wedding, disrupt it, but he, on the contrary, plays the role of best man... Alas, not the robber Dubrovsky, who would pull out a dagger and stab him in the very heart of the groom, or even the priest. Our “Romeo” does not have the determination to fight for love to the end. This is a pensive young man in his mournful reflection who serves as best man at a wedding. The loved one stands nearby and cannot do anything. He is too intelligent to fight for his beloved, just as she is too weak-willed to reject the matchmaking of the general-official and say a decisive no to the priest.

V.V. Stasov rightly called “Unequal Marriage” “one of the most capital, but at the same time the most tragic pictures Russian painting". “What could be simpler than the plot taken here? - asked the critic. “Isn’t the sale and purchase of a bride a scene that everyone sees with their own eyes almost every day?” .

Beautiful story, which was presented to us, has nothing to do with the reality depicted in the picture. Bargaining?.. Yes, there is bargaining, but this bargaining should not evoke sympathy for the bride, but disgust... We have before us a direct fact that they do not want to comprehend in its direct meaning. The audience finds justification and understanding, finds sympathy and empathy, but does not find common sense to understand what this fact means?...

And it means the following. The girl in the picture betrayed love. She betrayed the young man and sold herself for money. There is no need to look for excuses for her actions, that she was forced or persuaded. Love does not forgive betrayal. If we agree that the girl had no choice, then let's declare Shakespeare a charlatan, and Juliet an extravagant girl who, out of sheer idiocy, committed suicide rather than agree to marry a member of her clan...

There are two truths. This is the truth of a Russian girl who, under pressure from her parents, agreed to marry someone she didn’t love, and the truth of Juliet, who chose death. But there are no two truths, just as there is no day or night outside the window at the same time... If you listen to the mellifluous judgments of domestic critics, then the truth turns out to be on the side of Pukirev’s heroine. And if you follow Shakespeare’s judgments, then the truth is on the side of his heroes. For whom love was higher than death...

What prevented the Russian heroine from running away from home?.. What prevented her from overcoming the oppression of her parents?.. What prevented her from dying for love?.. Weakness?.. Then this girl is unworthy of love, if she is not ready to fight for love, then as a person she is insignificant, she is weak, she is immature, she must be condemned... Why sympathize with a person who is so treacherously weak, who does not want to fight for love, who does not want to overcome obstacles in order to be with her beloved... An insignificant type of woman who can only evoke disgusting sympathy...

A person has a choice, and the heroine of an “unequal marriage” also had a choice. She could have run away with her beloved?.. She could have.. She could have not put on a dress and not gone to church?.. She could have.. She could have thrown herself into the water like Katerina?.. She could have... But she didn’t do anything like that, she made a choice in favor of weakness. In favor of the fact that love for her is less than pleasing the surrounding opinion, parents, life itself. Love is insignificant to her. And although it’s hard for her, she’s ready to overcome love...

However, weakness and weak-willedness are a very rare phenomenon for female types, this is rather the exception, but what is the rule, this is what we need to figure out. What was the mistake of those interpreters who justified the heroine?.. That they did not look at the essence of the fact, although it is obvious. Here he is directly depicted. Here is a young girl, here is her beloved, here is a high-ranking official. The direct fact says that the girl abandoned her beloved for the sake of the dignitary. That is, she preferred material benefits. So between two choices, material or spiritual, she chose the first. This is the crude, materialistic, merciless truth of life. Woman in real life sacrifices love in the name of commercialism. This fact is difficult to accept, it causes indignation. All our sympathy goes to the unfortunate girl, who is depicted with such hopelessness and weak-willedness. Nevertheless, the main motive for writing “unequal marriage” was this brutal truth of life.

Or maybe our heroine really had no choice? After all, girls of that era were subordinate to their parents. And to disobey their will would mean being cursed, and even losing an inheritance. But even in those days, the girl still had a choice, she could refuse the unloved and give consent to the beloved. Or "run to dark night"with her beloved, as Natalya did from Karamzin's story "Natalya, the Boyar's Daughter"

"How? Without my father's knowledge? Without his blessing? - “Without his knowledge, without his blessing, or I died!” - “Oh my God!.. My heart sank. Leave quietly from your parents' house? What will happen to the father? He will die of grief, and a terrible sin will remain on my soul. Dear friend! Why don't we throw ourselves at his feet? He will love you, bless you and let us go to church himself.” - “We will throw ourselves at his feet, but after a while. Now he cannot agree to our marriage. My very life will be in danger when they recognize me.”

What prevented a young girl like Natalya from running away with her beloved and getting married?.. Only weakness and cowardice, only a miscalculation of future profit from an official husband. He made a fortune and earned a pension of 300 rubles a year, a lot of money for that time... So the girl gave in to her parents’ persuasion, so she stepped over her soul and heart. It’s not easy for a girl to make a choice, but she overcomes herself, walks down the aisle, refuses to fight, lets her fate go with the flow, like a boat carried by a river without oars... Probably they persuaded Tatyana Larina too, but at least she was sure that she wouldn’t my beloved needs it, and here, here he is standing next to me, point at him with your hand and tell the priest, here he is my beloved, I don’t want to marry a nasty old man, I want to live with my beloved, either the priest will marry me or take my life! I will give everything for love!.. But no.. he is silent, silent, following the powerful hand of fate...

The main source of the idea for the artist’s painting was a real event - the story of the unhappy love of Pukirev’s friend S.M. Varentsov. A year before the creation of the picture, a wealthy manufacturer, already quite elderly, became engaged to a young girl from a poor family, a certain S.N. Rybnikova, Varentsov's beloved. For some reason, the girl married not her loved one, but a rich manufacturer, and her lover had the role of best man at this wedding." Rybnikova ended sadly. In the almshouse.

"- And I must say that when they come to me, everyone asks, but it’s true that this young man on the right is the artist himself... Luckily for us, we recently bought one drawing with the inscription, Vladimir Sukhov, portrait Praskovya Matveevna Varentsova, 1907, inscription, Praskovya Matveevna Varentsova, from which 44 years ago the artist Pukirev wrote his famous painting"Unequal marriage". Mrs. Varentsova lives in Moscow in the Mazurin almshouse... This is her life, yes, she apparently outlived her old man. The Mazurins had a room for such merchants, former merchant wives, for about 50 people, there on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, in fact, apparently, the life of this woman ended." (L. POLOZOVA. (Echo of Moscow)

This is the truth of life. The main truth is that young women are not only ready to marry unloved people, but also to sacrifice love. This is the most terrible thing that a woman, a source of love and inspiration, is so cynically in control of her own destiny. For her, her youth becomes a bargaining chip. It is she who sells herself, and society only contributes. If a prostitute sells her body to many men for the sake of enrichment, then an ordinary woman sells not only her body, but also her soul to a rich man. Arranged marriages became so cynical in Russian society that the Tsar was forced to ban them. This is how only a ban could limit the greed of young girls.

"Relationships are bargaining - everyone sets their own price and the buyer is looking for a seller and the seller is looking for a buyer. Words are just a shell for bargaining, which is based on two things - sexuality and money. The sexy woman is sold at the highest price. A rich man buys himself the sexiest woman. In in a world where everything is bought and sold, there is no place for love - after all, love cannot be bought for any money, and tenderness cannot be acquired with any tricks." (Gennady Volovoy)

An interesting situation was described by one writer in his book about how to win a woman. Unfortunately, I don’t remember either the author or the title of the book, so I’m quoting his story from memory. The author decided to conduct an experiment to reveal the commercialism of women. At the dawn of perestroika, when the first businessmen began to appear, racketeering was flourishing, and girls at school began dreaming of becoming currency prostitutes, he placed an advertisement in the newspaper, where he wrote. That “a young man living in a dormitory, a factory worker, strong, athletic, without bad habits, loves animals and children, wants to meet a girl to start a family." After some time, three invitations came to him. From a woman over forty years old, from a mother of three children, and from an alcoholic.

Then a month later he posted a new ad in which he changed his status. He wrote. "A businessman with a strong and solid business, bald, vertically challenged, with a belly, with a difficult, if not difficult, character, forty years old, wants to meet with the goal of having a mistress, marriage is possible, but I don’t promise." This proposal was responded to... 400 letters!.. Who was not among them. Not at all. young girls were ready to throw their innocence at their feet. Married women offered to become lovers. The rest were simply eager to marry such a “lucky groom.” The classic situation repeated itself, as in the fairy tale about “Tsakhis,” who was ugly, but had three hairs on his bald head. And the girls fell in love with him and did not see his ugliness. Everything is natural, women choose gold and betray love.

“If a woman wants to pick up a rich man in order to earn money, she needs to know that there is fierce competition in this area and everyone needs money. The question here is not where to find it, this is not a problem, but is the woman worth being looked for? And for this it is necessary have beauty, a cheerful character, bitchiness, the ability to enslave a man, arouse passion and interest in him, in a word, a woman should be such as to make a rich man want to buy her for money and push aside a competing contender for a piece of his wealth.” (Gennady Volovoy)

Today, times have changed, but the greedy desires of women have not changed. Of course, today young girls no longer dream of being currency prostitutes, but the passion for profit, for sudden enrichment at the expense of a man, blinds and attracts to tempting horizons. And today, guide Lyudmila Polozova tempts young girls in front of the painting “Unequal Marriage” tricky questions. And hears different answers from different age groups. If these are fifth-graders, then they say in unison that they would never marry an old man; if these are eighth-graders, then they are already beginning to doubt and are not so categorical, and if these are young women, then they are already openly expressing the possibility of such a thing. marriage... Here, evolution pure soul girls, until the girl's soul is clouded by selfishness.

“The demon who has crept into a woman’s soul whispers to her: “You need strong man and power is in money. After all, a man who knows how to earn money attracts people not even with the money itself, but with the confidence that comes from him. You must be a support and support for this man. You need to think about your children and their happiness is in wealth.” As soon as a woman agrees with these arguments, she will betray love." (Gennady Volovoy)

There is a proverb that best characterizes best qualities men and women, with its brevity it sheds light on genuine people and it sounds like this. “A man is tested with damask steel, a woman with gold.” When a woman frees herself from the “shackles” of “gold”, when she has a free soul and chooses love, when she overcomes all obstacles and temptations for the sake of love, only then will a woman emerge as a free person. Then the girl will be able to choose true values ​​and find better fate which can be found in life!..

“If a girl looks into the depths of her soul, then she will see that her soul thirsts not for love, but for vanity. If a woman looks into the depths of her soul, she will see that her soul thirsts not for love, but for gold. If an old woman looks into the depths of her soul, then will see that her soul only wants love. If the mind of an old woman were put into a girl and a woman, how many mistakes would they avoid?" (Gennady Volovoy)

And in conclusion of the article, I offer the reader a wonderful perception of the painting “Unequal Marriage” by the hero Gennady Martynov. (Picturesque Dreams)

“The trembling hand of the priest with a gold ring reaches out to the finger of the bride. But what this grandfather in a sparkling golden robe is doing can not be called anything other than blasphemy. And he, as if by right given to him by God, is doing this that is contrary to God sacrilege. After all, he marries youth, beauty, life with decay, decrepitude and death itself. It is unlikely that the little god from above looks with approval at this act, which is unnatural to all human nature. Is it possible that all the people standing closely behind do not understand this? God's. And the union of all living things in it is intended, first of all, so that life does not cease. And this means that the union, according to divine thought, should occur only in that case, and only in order to fulfill the first law of everything on earth - to prolong life.
The bride - still just a teenage girl - stands completely depressed by the weight of the forced ritual action in which she is assigned the main role. The call of the young flesh, still permeated through and through with romantic dreams, is rudely and mercilessly suppressed in this house of God. This is touching young creature, who, it seems, has just put aside her favorite dolls and all the games of daughter-mother, already upon leaving this space filled with the smell of incense, should henceforth be imbued with a stern feeling of the end of all the poetry of waiting for happiness under the watchful cold gaze of an old man whom only that she was named as a spouse.
Andrey remembered this picture well from childhood, from the moment their third grade class was first taken on an excursion to famous museum. Then he didn’t understand well who and why forced this big girl all in a white robe with a sad face and eyes from which tears were about to flow, deprived of strength to such an extent that a light candle fell out of her hands, stand next to this nasty old man , looking like a dried-up mummy, and a huge star studded with diamonds on his chest. He clearly heard his raspy voice. The stern grandfather barely audibly teaches, like a schoolgirl, how she should behave at this moment. What did she do wrong, and why is the grandfather with the star so dissatisfied? And why will she certainly be punished now? He didn't understand it. But he felt sorry for the girl to the point of tears.”

" – Pukirev’s painting “Unequal Marriage” was first shown at an academic exhibition in 1863 in St. Petersburg. It was first acquired by the famous Moscow collector Alexander Borisovsky, he was a friend of the artist Pukirev and twice financed their joint trips to Europe. To the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery The painting “Unequal Marriage” arrived in 1871, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov bought it from Borisovsky, he also bought other paintings from Borisovsky. Tretyakov paid Borisovsky 1,500 rubles, which was enough for those times. high price. The painting has a unique carved gilded frame made of solid wood, which was made by Pukirev’s friend Grebensky. In gratitude for such a luxurious gift, Pukirev depicted one of the characters in the painting with Grebensky’s portrait features. Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov liked this frame so much that he subsequently began ordering Grebensky frames for his other paintings." (G. DOLINCHUK. Echo of Moscow)

Reviews

Inaccuracy. It was not S.N. Rybnikova who ended her life in an almshouse, but the model with whom Pukirev painted his picture - P.M. Varentsova. And Rybnikova lived richly and happily in her house until the end of her days.

"In 2002 Tretyakov Gallery a portrait was received, made in 1907, on which it is written: “Praskovya Matveevna Varentsova, with whom 44 years ago the artist V.V. Pukirev painted his famous painting “Unequal Marriage.” Mrs. Varentsova lives in Moscow, in the Mazurin almshouse.” Yes, Varentsova lived out her old age in an almshouse. The rumor circulating around Moscow said that as a young beauty she was married off to a rich man, he soon died, but she never returned to her beloved, the artist Pukirev. Should we believe this rumor?

The daily audience of the Proza.ru portal is about 100 thousand visitors, who total amount view more than half a million pages according to the traffic counter, which is located to the right of this text. Each column contains two numbers: the number of views and the number of visitors.

Known as geniuses of one picture. But if Flavitsky finished his life path creating a masterpiece, then with Pukirev everything turned out differently. The painting “Unequal Marriage” became the master’s only masterpiece. He couldn't create anything better.

Indeed, you look at his other paintings and are amazed at how faceless they are compared to “Unequal Marriage.” Very standard themes, typical realism, so characteristic of Russian painting of the second half of the 19th century century. Everything is so monotonous, simple and boring... But one painting, one single masterpiece is the highest skill. This is an example when the entire artist burns out in one canvas, when he does something that will amaze people for many years to come.

The devil is in the details. If we don't notice them, then the picture dies. It ceases to be an object of art and becomes only beautiful image. “Unequal Marriage” by Vasily Pukirev is a work where you need to keep track of all the “abyss of little things,” every detail. Otherwise, we risk missing everything.

The fact remains a fact. Artists before and after Pukirev more than once depicted unhappy young brides and their old rich husbands. But the canvases did not produce such an effect. There is no picture of crying, wringing hands - all that, in the opinion of many painters, should depict real grief. Everything is much simpler here. The priest is about to put a ring on the bride's finger. She's unhappy. This is understandable: her husband, to put it mildly, is not young. Such situations happened often. Anna Kern, for example (the same one about whom A.S. Pushkin wrote: “I remember wonderful moment..."), parents married General Ermolai Fedorovich Kern, who at that time was already 52 years old. The bride is only sixteen. The declaration of love was short, military-style. General Kern asked Anna:

- Am I disgusting to you?
“No,” Anna answered and ran out of the room.

After her wedding night, she wrote in her diary: “It is impossible to love him - I am not even given the consolation of respecting him; I’ll tell you straight - I almost hate him.”. However, the girl did not suffer for long and quickly acquired numerous lovers. That is, you may not see anything terrible in this. But that's not true.

There are two very strange figures in this room. Two old women. One stands behind the groom, the other behind the priest. It seems like nothing unusual. Well, old women came to watch the wedding. Maybe they are the groom's sisters. But then the question arises: why are they wearing the same wreaths as the bride’s? And one of them even has a white dress. Stop, stop, stop. Like this? Another woman in white at a wedding? A church is not a registry office where brides walk in formation. Something is not right here! Let's take a closer look at the old woman's dress. Here's your time! Yes, this is not a dress at all, it looks more like a sheet. And this is a sheet, or rather, a funeral shroud. The figure of the second bride behind the priest looks even more strange, because this is not according to the rules of the ritual. Guests have nothing to do next to the priest, unless, of course, they come from another world.

So, it turns out that there are three brides at the wedding. Two of them are dead and looking at the old groom. The result is some kind of strange realism, it smacks too much of Gogol or Hoffmann. And now we worry about the bride in a completely different way. After all, if the hubby has already sent two people to the next world, then what will happen to this young girl?

And immediately you perceive the symbol of what is happening completely differently. The bride does not put a ring on her finger. She is called to suffer. And that is why the priest bows so respectfully before her. Understands her sacrifice.

And what light there is here! After all, he is like on canvas! Divine light in literally this word. It is in this light from the upper left corner, from the church window, that all the ghosts of ex-wives come to life. The light flows softly over the white dress, over the tender young skin of the bride, over her hand. And here it is the center of the composition. Not her face, not the figure of the old groom, but a hand, limply reaching out to the martyr's crown.

It’s also surprising what kind of play of glances is captured on the canvas. Dead old women look at the groom, the groom looks at the bride, the bride looks at the floor, the groom's friends also look at the bride. The author of the picture himself looks at the unfortunate woman. Here he is, Vasily Pukirev, standing with his arms crossed in the right corner. And another artist, a friend of the author, Pyotr Shmelkov, who gave him the idea for the painting, is looking at us. It is he who asks the viewer a silent question: “Do you understand what is happening?”

The fate of Vasily Pukirev was sad. “Unequal Marriage” was a huge success, but the artist was not happy about it. Immediately after selling the painting, he left for Italy for several years. This is understandable. The painting depicted his love, Praskovya Matveevna Varentsova, in the form of a young girl. Pukirev did not create a single painting that could be compared in power to his first masterpiece. He constantly returned to the topic of the tragic marriage, but everything turned out wrong. And the end result is alcohol, poverty, oblivion. The fate of the model was no better. At the beginning of the 20th century, she died alone in the Mazurin almshouse.

Painting Russian artist Vasily Pukirev’s “Unequal Marriage,” written by him in 1862, gave rise to many rumors and even legends in its time. Such marriages were common at that time, so the plot itself turned out to be very familiar to everyone. It is noteworthy that the artist depicted himself in the image of the best man, and there were rumors in society about the unusual influence of the painting on elderly grooms, who allegedly abandoned their intentions because of it.

The image of the best man in the picture turned out to be so vivid that as a result, the center of attention was not the bride and groom, but love triangle. Since in appearance Everyone easily recognized the best man as the artist himself, and rumors arose that he had depicted his own drama in the painting - allegedly his beloved girl was forcibly married to a rich, elderly dignitary.

However, in fact, the reason for creating the picture was not Pukirev’s own grief, but a story from the life of his friend, S. Varentsov. He was going to marry a girl whom her parents had married off to a wealthy manufacturer. Varentsov himself was the best man at her wedding. Initially, Pukirev portrayed him in this role, but later changed his appearance at the request of a friend.

Pukirev made the groom much older and more unpleasant than he was in life. But unequal marriages were so common in Russian society XIX century, that such a substitution did not seem an exaggeration - young girls were indeed often married against their will to wealthy elderly officials and merchants. This is evidenced by paintings by other artists devoted to the same topic.

Edmund Blair-Leighton. Till death do us part, 1878

The most interesting thing began after the film “Unequal Marriage” was presented at the Moscow Academic art exhibition: they say that the elderly generals, having seen this work, one after another began to refuse to marry young brides. Moreover, some of them even complained of being unwell - headaches, heart pain, etc. Viewers nicknamed the picture “Koshchey with the Bride.”

The historian N. Kostomarov admitted to friends that, having seen Pukirev’s painting, he abandoned his intentions to marry a young girl. Can this be explained magical influence paintings? Hardly. Most likely, its ironic and accusatory meaning was so obvious that a common phenomenon appeared in all its ugliness. The gray-haired suitors recognized themselves in the repulsive image of the old general - and refused to repeat his mistake.

Pavel Fedotov. The Major's Matchmaking, 1848

Akim Karneev. Unequal marriage, 1866

Firs Zhuravlev. Before the crown, 1874

There are paintings with clearly aggressive subjects, depicting battles and battles, but even more terrible and sad are those subjects in which trouble is hidden under an innocent guise. One of these paintings is the work of Vasily Pukirev “Unequal Marriage”. What secret does he keep? famous painting and why does it attract viewers so much?

Alas, marriages were not always concluded for love. Sometimes young beauties fell into the hands of the “Koshchei Immortals,” but unlike fairy tales, the prince did not appear to free them from captivity. And the girl’s beauty was forced to gradually wither in captivity and in the arms of an unloved old man. Such situations were far from rare. Perhaps that is why this masterpiece was destined to see the light of day.

But for those who are not yet familiar with the work famous artist we should tell you what the plot of “Unequal Marriage” is.

In the foreground is a sweet and sad bride. And the words of the once popular song “the sad bride put on her wedding ring…” come to mind. The girl doomedly extends her finger towards the priest, who is about to perform the betrothal ceremony. And the soul can guess how dear these last seconds of freedom are to the bride. She's still child's face, a snow-white dress speaks of the innocence of feelings and thoughts and seems to surround the bride with a special light.

But in the church there is also one for whom this sacrament is similar to true pleasure. This is a wealthy, elderly groom who is about to catch the dove in his net. He looks at the girl with impatience, realizing his power.

The elder holds a candle, following generally accepted traditions and demonstrating his respect for them. But in fact, his appearance is so arrogant that it is easy to guess that he puts himself above all human laws.

He casts a hard look at the young beauty and is clearly unhappy that she cannot hold back her tears. It’s not difficult to guess that having barely retired, the girl will have a serious conversation with her new husband. And she will be obliged to obey him in everything and even smile and cry, too, on the orders of her husband. But now her soul cannot voluntarily part with her youth and the bride’s tears disobediently drip onto her dress.

Besides central figures There are also those in the picture that at first glance do not attract attention, but in fact they are depicted here for a reason. Apparently the bride is given away “for money”, that is, it is calculated and those who are present in the church have their own interest in this matter.

The faces of the old women add some mysticism to the canvas. Unlike the other heroes, they are painted in pale colors, like ghosts. Therefore, when solving the mystery of the painting, a version was put forward that these old women were also once the wives of an arrogant groom. But they “retired” having lost their youth. And wasn’t this the fate in store for the next beauty whom the voluptuous man chose?

At first similar story developed with his close friend. The girl married a man who was 13 years older than her. And the artist’s friend was invited to the wedding as best man. Life itself gave such a plot to the artist and he could not miss it.

But when the friend himself found out that his suffering could be immortalized, he created a scandal and therefore the master gave the male figure his own face. Moreover, by that time he was actually experiencing the same torment as the character from his point of view.

True, the artist was criticized for using prohibited techniques, for example, depicting characters in full height. At that time it was only permissible to draw like this ancient heroes. But Pukirev decided to do this and took such a step for good reason, because the creation amazes us decades later.

The topic of women's lack of rights worried not only artists, but also poets and writers. After all, it was at that time that such works as “Dowry”, “Dubrovsky”, “Thunderstorm”, etc. appeared.

His new paintings found no buyers. And the young man’s personal life was not going well. He never got to meet the woman of his life. He quit his job and began to seek solace in alcohol, gradually and irrevocably becoming an alcoholic.

The master, whose name was known throughout Russia, was now forced to live only on the money that his friends gave him. And he died as inconspicuously as he spent last years own life.

That's actually right folk wisdom- you have to pay for everything.