Pavel Fedotov is picky. Fedotov. The picky bride. For materials: “practice-oriented excursions into the theatrical theory of action by Pyotr Mikhailovich Ershov”

Pavel Fedotov’s painting “The Picky Bride” was painted in 1847. With this painting, Fedotov paid tribute to the memory of the fabulist Krylov three years after his death. As a basis, the artist took Krylov’s fable of the same name about a fastidious beauty who for several years refused all suitors wooing her, until she came to her senses, paying attention to her fading skin...

The beauty has not yet bloomed at all,

She married the first one who approached her,

And I’m glad, I was really glad,

That she married a cripple.

The unnatural emotional expression on the faces of those depicted attracts attention: the courteous condescension of a middle-aged lady and the plea for the opportunity to be with her already middle-aged gentleman, who understands that his chances are slim: the groom is disgusting in appearance. However, the artist shows the bride’s obvious interest in the next contender for her hand. Realizing the need for her consent this time, because she apparently has no choice left, she pretends to think twice before entrusting herself to this ugly old man, although it is obvious that she has already made a decision, the announcement of which her parents are eagerly awaiting, watching the process behind the door. The groom's chic clothes - an expensive jacket, a shiny top hat, patent leather shoes - attracts them much more than sincere feelings, and guarantees a “successful marriage”.

The artist emphasizes the external ugliness of the groom with the moral character of his chosen one. The abundance of cosmetics on her face reveals a desire to please and avoid rejection on his part.

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Painting by Pavel Fedotov The Picky Bride: description, biography of the artist, customer reviews, other works of the author. Large catalog of paintings by Pavel Fedotov on the website of the BigArtShop online store.

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Pavel Andreevich Fedotov was born in Moscow in 1815 into the family of a titular councilor. His father served in the army during the time of Catherine, and upon retirement received the rank of lieutenant and nobility.

At the age of 11, Pavel was assigned by his father to the First Moscow Cadet Corps, where he showed ability for military service, and in 1830 he was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and in 1832 to sergeant major, and in the same year he graduated from the course with honors .

During his studies, he was interested in mathematics and chemistry, and in his free time, he was interested in drawing.

In 1833, Fedotov was promoted to the first officer rank; in 1834, with the rank of ensign, he was sent to serve in the Life Guards Finnish Regiment in St. Petersburg, where he served for 10 years.

After three years of service, the young officer began attending evening drawing classes at the Academy of Arts, practiced at home, drawing portraits of his colleagues, scenes of regimental life, and caricatures. The portraits turned out very similar, but the portrait of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich came out especially well from Fedotov’s brush, whose images were readily bought.

In the summer of 1837, Fedotov painted a watercolor painting “Meeting of the Grand Duke,” for which the prince himself awarded the artist a diamond ring. This award, according to Fedotov, “finally sealed artistic pride in his soul.” After this, the artist began the painting “Consecration of Banners in the Winter Palace, Renovated after the Fire.” The still unfinished painting was presented to the Grand Duke, who in turn showed it to his august brother, the result of which was the highest command: “to grant the drawing officer the voluntary right to leave the service and devote himself to painting with a salary of 100 rubles. notes per month."

After much thought, Pavel Andreevich decided to take advantage of the royal favor: he submitted his resignation, and in 1844 he was dismissed with the rank of captain and the right to wear a military uniform.

Despite the fact that he now had to live on a meager pension, his love for art helped him persistently pursue his intended goal - to become a real artist.

At first, Pavel Andreevich chose the battle genre for himself, but later found his true calling in genre painting.

The artist was helped to make his choice by the fabulist Krylov, who saw some of Fedotov’s works and advised him to take up genre painting. Heeding this advice, Fedotov painted two oil paintings one after another: “Fresh Cavalier” and “The Picky Bride” and showed them to Bryullov, the all-powerful man at the Academy of Arts in those years, who was delighted. By the Council of the Academy, Fedotov was nominated for the title of academician and received a financial allowance, which allowed him to continue the painting “Major's Matchmaking” that he had begun.

After the exhibition of this painting, the Academy Council unanimously recognized the artist as an academician, Fedotov’s name became known to the general public, and laudatory articles from critics appeared in magazines. Simultaneously with “The Major’s Matchmaking,” a poem that explained the meaning of this painting, composed by the artist himself, became known. It was then that it turned out that from a young age Fedotov loved to write poetry, fables, romances, which he himself set to music...

However, despite the fact that by the beginning of the 1850s the artist had received well-deserved recognition, success was overshadowed by the increased attention of censorship, which was caused by the satirical orientation of Fedotov’s work and his adherence to principles. Patrons began to turn away from Fedotov.

Worries and disappointment, together with constant strain on the mind, hands and eyes, especially when working in the evening and at night, had a devastating effect on Pavel Andreevich’s health. The artist’s vision deteriorated, he began to suffer from rushes of blood to the brain, frequent headaches, he grew old beyond his years, and an increasingly noticeable change took place in his very character: cheerfulness and sociability were replaced by thoughtfulness and silence.

In the spring of 1852, Pavel Andreevich showed signs of acute mental disorder. People around him began to think he was crazy.

Friends and the authorities of the Academy placed Fedotov in one of the private St. Petersburg hospitals for the mentally ill, and the sovereign granted 500 rubles for his maintenance in this institution. Despite this, the disease progressed, and in the fall of 1852, acquaintances arranged for Pavel Andreevich to be transferred to the Hospital of All Who Sorrow on the Peterhof Highway. Here Fedotov died on November 14 of the same year, forgotten by everyone except a few close friends.

The texture of the canvas, high-quality paints and large-format printing allow our reproductions of Pavel Fedotov to be as good as the original. The canvas will be stretched on a special stretcher, after which the painting can be framed in the baguette of your choice.

The painting “The Picky Bride” was painted by P.A. Fedotov in 1847. The painter borrowed its plot from Krylov. By the way, the painting itself was created with the intention of honoring the memory of the great fabulist, who recently died, whose work Fedotov rated extremely highly.

The main character of the film is a fastidious and arrogant old maid. Year after year, she refused all applicants for her hand and heart, and only realized it when the line of suitors melted away. Now she is glad to have any groom, even a cripple.

Before us is an old maid and a smartly dressed hunchback offering her his hand. Fedotov shows the decisive moment of explanation. Obviously, this explanation will be followed by a transactional marriage, so typical in an aristocratic environment. The external ugliness of the groom, who craves wealth, is balanced by the moral ugliness of the bride. Parents peeking from behind the curtains exacerbate the feeling of hypocrisy and falsehood.

The painting “The Picky Bride” clearly demonstrated the artist’s painting skills. Fedotov masterfully conveys the shimmer of the fabric of the bride’s dress, the shine of gilded frames and the texture of wooden surfaces. All room furnishings are necessary and appropriate. For example, a top hat with gloves knocked over by a frisky groom makes the situation even more comical.

In the film “The Picky Bride,” Fedotov demonstrated an excellent knowledge of morals and the ability to create accurate psychological portraits. The painter is by no means inclined to treat his heroes with sympathy - rather, their images are permeated with merciless satire.

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

Pavel Andreevich Fedotov (June 22, 1815, Moscow - November 14, 1852, St. Petersburg) - Russian painter and graphic artist.

The son of a very poor official, a former soldier of Catherine's times, and later a titular adviser to Andrei Illarionovich Fedotov and his wife, Natalya Alekseevna, he was born in Moscow on June 22, 1815 and baptized on July 3 in the Church of Kharitonia in Ogorodniki, Nikitsky forty. The recipients of the baptism were the collegiate adviser Ivan Andreevich Petrovsky and the daughter of a nobleman, Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Tolstaya.

Self-portrait. 1848

At the age of eleven, without any scientific training, he was assigned to the first Moscow cadet corps. Thanks to his abilities, diligence and exemplary behavior, he attracted the attention of his superiors and surpassed his comrades. In 1830 he was made a non-commissioned officer, in 1833 he was promoted to sergeant major and in the same year he graduated from the course as the first student, and his name, according to established custom, was included on an honorary marble plaque in the assembly hall of the building.

Released as an ensign in the Finnish Life Guards Regiment, he moved to St. Petersburg. After three or four years of service in the regiment, the young officer began attending evening drawing classes at the Academy of Arts, where he tried to more accurately draw some parts of the human body from plaster models. He diligently studied the forms of the human body and tried to make his hand more free and obedient in order to transfer the beauty of nature to a blank canvas. For the same purpose, he practiced at home, drawing portraits of his colleagues and acquaintances with a pencil or watercolors in his free time. These portraits were always very similar, but Fedotov studied especially well the facial features and figure of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, whose images that came out from under his brush were eagerly bought by sellers of paintings and prints.

In the summer of 1837, the Grand Duke, returning to St. Petersburg from a trip abroad for treatment, visited the Krasnoselsky camp, where the guards who adored him greeted him with a noisy ovation. Struck by the picturesqueness of the scene that took place, Fedotov sat down to work and in just three months completed the large watercolor painting “Meeting of the Grand Duke,” which, in addition to the portrait of His Highness, contains portraits of many of the participants in the celebration. The painting was presented to the Grand Duke, who awarded the artist a diamond ring for it. This award, according to Fedotov, “finally sealed artistic pride in his soul.” Following this, he began to work on another painting, “The Consecration of Banners in the Winter Palace, renovated after the fire,” but, experiencing a great need for means of subsistence, he decided to present this painting in an unfinished form to the Grand Duke in order to solicit them. The latter showed it to his august brother, the result of which was the highest command: “to grant the drawing officer the voluntary right to leave the service and devote himself to painting with a salary of 100 rubles. Assign. per month".

Fedotov pondered for a long time whether to take advantage of the royal favor or not, but finally submitted his resignation and in 1844 was dismissed with the rank of captain and the right to wear a military uniform. Having parted with his epaulettes, he found himself in difficult living conditions - even worse than those under which he, the son of poor parents, had to exist while serving in the guard. With the meager pension granted by the sovereign, it was necessary to support himself, help his father’s family, which had fallen into great need, hire models, purchase materials and aids for artistic work; but the love of art kept Fedotov cheerful and helped him fight difficult circumstances and persistently move towards his intended goal - to become a real artist.

At first, after retiring, he chose battle painting as a specialty, as a field of art in which he had already successfully tried his hand, and which in the Nicholas era promised honor and material security. Having settled in a poor apartment “from tenants” in one of the distant lines of Vasilievsky Island, denying himself the slightest comfort, being content with a 15-kopeck lunch from the kitchen, sometimes enduring hunger and cold, he began to practice even more diligently than before in drawing and writing sketches from life as at home and in academic classes and, in order to expand the range of his battle subjects, hitherto limited to the infantry, he began to study the skeleton and musculature of the horse, under the guidance of prof. A. Zaurweida. Of the works conceived by Fedotov at this time, but which remained only designed in sketches, the most remarkable, according to the opinion of his friends, were “French marauders in a Russian village, in 1812”, “Warding of the rangers across the river on maneuvers”, “Evening entertainment” in the barracks on the occasion of the regimental holiday" and several compositions on the theme "Barracks life", composed under the influence of Gogarth. However, painting military scenes was not the true calling of our artist: wit, subtle observation, the ability to notice the typical features of people of different classes, knowledge of the situation of their lives, the ability to grasp a person’s character - all these qualities of talent, clearly demonstrated in Fedotov’s drawings, indicated that he should to be not a battle painter, but a genre painter. But he was not aware of this, composing everyday scenes, so to speak, casually, for his own amusement and for the amusement of his friends.

This continued until a letter from the fabulist Krylov opened his eyes. Krylov, who had seen some of Fedotov’s works, convinced him to give up soldiers and horses and focus exclusively on the genre. Having listened to this advice, the artist almost hopelessly locked himself in his studio, redoubled his work on studying the techniques of painting with oil paints and, having mastered them to a sufficient extent, by the spring of 1848 he painted two paintings, one after another, based on the sketches already in his album: “Fresh Cavalier” "or "The morning of the official who received the first cross" and "The picky bride." Having been shown to K. Bryullov, then all-powerful at the Academy of Arts, they delighted him; Thanks to him, and even more to their merits, they obtained from the Academy the title of appointed academician to Fedotov, permission to turn into a program for an academician the painting he had already begun, “The Major’s Matchmaking,” and a monetary allowance for its execution. This painting was ready for the academic exhibition of 1849, at which it appeared along with “The Fresh Cavalier” and “The Picky Bride.” The Academy Council unanimously recognized the artist as an academician, and when the doors of the exhibition opened to the public, Fedotov’s name became known throughout the capital and was heard throughout Russia.

Fedotov’s popularity was facilitated by the fact that almost simultaneously with “The Major’s Matchmaking,” a poetic explanation of this painting, composed by the artist himself and distributed in handwritten copies, became known. From a young age, Fedotov loved to practice poetry. Both drawing and painting were mixed with his conversation with the muse: most of the artistic ideas expressed with his pencil or brush were then poured out under his pen into rhymed lines, and vice versa, one or another topic, which first gave Fedotov the content for the poem, later became the plot of it drawing or painting. In addition, he composed fables, elegies, album plays, romances, which he himself set to music, and, during his time as an officer, soldiers’ songs. Fedotov's poetry is much lower than the creations of his pencil and brush, however, it also has the same merits as they are noted for, but ten times more. However, Fedotov did not attach much importance to his poems and did not publish them, allowing them to be copied only by friends and close acquaintances. Both of them rightly considered the explanation for “The Major’s Matchmaking” to be the most successful work of Fedotov’s poetry and willingly communicated it to everyone.

The academic exhibition of 1848 brought Fedotov, in addition to honor and fame, some improvement in material resources: in addition to the pension received from the state treasury, it was ordered that he be given 300 rubles. per annum from the sum appropriated by His Majesty's Cabinet for the encouragement of worthy artists. This could not have been more opportune, since the circumstances of Fedotov’s relatives at that time worsened and he had to spend heavily on them. In order to see his family and arrange his father’s affairs, he went to Moscow soon after the end of the exhibition. From his paintings, which were displayed at the St. Petersburg exhibition, and from several sepia drawings, an exhibition was organized, which brought the local public into the same, if not more, delight as the St. Petersburg one. Fedotov returned from Moscow happy with her, healthy, full of bright hopes and immediately sat down again to work. Now he wanted to introduce into his work, which had previously been aimed at exposing the vulgar and dark sides of Russian life, a new element - the interpretation of bright and joyful phenomena. For the first time, he decided to present the image of an attractive woman who had suffered a great misfortune, the loss of her beloved husband, and in 1851-1852 he painted the painting “Widow”, and then began the composition “The Return of a College Girl to her Parental Home”, which he soon abandoned and was replaced by another plot : “The arrival of the sovereign at the Patriotic Institute”, which also remained only half developed. Despite the success of his first paintings, Fedotov became more and more convinced that he lacked serious training in order to convey his ideas to the canvas quickly and freely, that at his age, in order to conquer artistic technique, he had to work persistently, spending a lot of time and using... some income. With the pensions and benefits received, it was barely possible to have shelter and food, and meanwhile, they had to buy art materials from them, hire nature and send benefits to Moscow to their relatives, who, despite all the artist’s care for them, had fallen into complete poverty. I had to put aside my newly conceived compositions for an indefinite period and earn money through less serious work - painting cheap portraits and copying my previous works.

Worries and disappointment, together with the constant strain of the mind and imagination and the continuous use of hands and eyes, especially when working in the evening and at night, had a devastating effect on Fedotov’s health: he began to suffer from illness and weakness of vision, rushes of blood to the brain, and frequent headaches , grew old beyond his years, and a more and more noticeable change took place in his very character: cheerfulness and sociability were replaced in him by thoughtfulness and silence. Finally, Fedotov’s painful state turned into complete insanity. Friends and academic authorities placed him in one of the private St. Petersburg hospitals for the mentally ill, and the sovereign granted 500 rubles for his maintenance in this institution, ordering him to make all possible efforts to heal the unfortunate man. But the disease moved forward with unstoppable steps. Soon Fedotov fell into the category of restless ones. Due to poor care for him in the hospital, his friends arranged for his transfer in the fall of 1852 to the Hospital of All Who Sorrow, on the Peterhof Highway. Here he suffered for a short time and died on November 14 of the same year, having regained his sanity about two weeks before his death. He was buried at the necropolis of masters of art of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Portrait of a father. 1837

And Fedotov and his comrades in the Life Guards Finnish Regiment. 1840

Gentlemen! Get married - it will come in handy! 1840-41

Anchor, more anchor!

Bivouac of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment 1843

Portrait of Olga Petrovna Zhdanovich, née Chernysheva. 1845-47

Fresh gentleman. The morning of the official who received the first cross. 1846

Portrait of P P Zhdanovich. 1846

The picky bride. 1847

Portrait of Anna Petrovna Zhdanovich 1848

Major's matchmaking. 1848

It's all cholera's fault. 1848

Fashionista Wife (Lioness Sketch). 1849

Aristocrat's breakfast. 1849-1850

Winter day. Early 1850s

Portrait of M. I. Krylova. 1850

Widow. circa 1850

Portrait of N.P. Zhdanovich at the harpsichord. 1850

Players. 1852

Players. Sketch

Boss and subordinate

Girl Head of a pimp. Late 1840s

The death of Fidelka. 1844

Shop. 1844

Christening 1847

House thief. 1851

Self-portrait. Late 1840s

Fully

Description of Fedotov’s painting “The Picky Bride”

Fedotov’s painting “The Picky Bride” depicts a funny matchmaking scene.
The action takes place in a luxurious room, the walls of which are decorated with paintings in gilded frames.
The room is furnished with expensive carved furniture, and there is also a cage with a large parrot.
In the center of the picture is the same picky bride, who sits in front of the groom in a lush iridescent dress.
She is no longer as young as before; in those days such women were classified as old maids.
Her beauty has already faded, but she still lives with her parents and has not been married.

The long-awaited groom stands in front of her on one knee.
He is not at all the handsome man that the girl dreamed of in her youth.
The groom is hunchbacked, ugly and already balding.
He looks at the bride with a look full of expectation.
A man wants to hear the cherished phrase: “I agree!”
His top hat, gloves and cane are lying on the floor.
The feeling is that he ran to the bride, hastily threw his things on the floor and is waiting for the decision of the picky bride.
To the right of the groom is a small white dog, which, like him, is waiting to see if the no longer young woman will give her consent.
The comedy of the situation is added, apparently, by the bride's parents, hiding behind the curtain and waiting for an answer.
They were already completely desperate to marry their daughter, and now a potential groom came, and the parents hoped for a positive answer.

Everyone is waiting for the bride's decision, because the fate of everyone present depends on her word.
She is not young, all the contenders for her hand and heart have been married for a long time, and she was still waiting for that ideal one, which she never received.
Now she has no choice, she will have to marry the one who proposes or remain an old maid for the rest of her life.
No matter how ugly the groom is, the picky bride has no one else to choose from.
Parents understand this and look forward to her answer.
The bride's fate is predetermined, because thanks to her pickiness, she has no choice left at all.