Description of the painting: The picky bride. Description of Fedotov’s painting “The Picky Bride. Excursions in Theater Theory of Action

And next to us we will see another picture. You don't have to go far for this. There she is, hanging very close. "The Picky Bride" Every time I happened to look at this small picturesque picture, framed by some too disproportionate gilded frame, I felt very unclear, vague and unpleasant sensations being born in my soul.

The artist seems to encourage us to laugh and have fun. But I don’t want to have fun. And this despite all the efforts of the artist to simplify the scene taking place to the point of primitivism, to the point of caricature. In this strained meeting of an ugly, pitiful hunchback and an overripe young girl, trying with all her might to keep on her face the charming coquetry necessary for the occasion and favorable attention to the love confession of a kneeling pathetic little man, one sees not a funny anecdote, but a cruel drama of life.

On the one hand, there is the sincere joy of an unfortunate creature offended by God, and on the other, in response, there is a huge volitional effort not to reveal one’s true feelings to a capricious and picky nature. Is it really true, or is it just seeming, that the artist encourages us to laugh evilly at what is happening. And even more than that, this crazy artist, who himself ended his days in complete mental disorder, invites us to stubbornly gloat over the grief of his unfortunate heroes?

No, only in a completely insensitive soul this whole painful scene will not evoke bitter sympathy for all participants in the drama. And not only to the “lovers”, but also to the parents, hiding behind the curtain two steps away from them.

When I come to the museum with another group, I rarely draw their attention to this small painting. I know from experience that the degree of attention in this place to my words will be very high. Because I can easily assume that among the foreigners standing in front of me there are those to whom this picturesque scene could remind of something from their own lives. Albeit not in such a severely hypertrophied form.

The drama of suppressing inner feelings. The drama of realizing that the romance of feelings, calling for high and, as it turns out, unrealistic sensations, is just an unaffordable luxury that is inaccessible to you. And the sad conviction that you need to use for now what life is still able to give you as a gift, no matter how pitiful it may seem, finally wins over you. Well, what is the reason for fun and ridicule here?

No, I rarely allow myself such insensitivity and even rudeness, standing in front of people in this tiny hall. I cannot help but know that with my careless words I can easily hurt some sensitive soul. I cannot remind the listener with vulgar playfulness of lost illusions, of a similar drama experienced in my own life. And who did not have them, lost hopes in distant years due to the exorbitant pride characteristic of youth.

And I also no less want to hurt the feelings of those who internally compare themselves with this pathetic hunchback, who fell to his knees with trepidation, and who, as the greatest reward in life, receives this overripe, cutesy girl.

And she? She is about to cross the line after which she is destined to remain an old maid forever. They still carefully and insultingly call her “Mademoiselle.” And if it weren’t for this hunchback, she would have to hear this disgusting “mademoiselle” until the end of her sorrowful age. What fun is this?

But it also happens that a group, and even if not the whole group, but only one of them, rudely and shamelessly bothered me with excessive whims, and even rudeness with the tacit consent of everyone else, then in a joyful and vengeful feeling I deliberately and for a long time stop before this picture. And then, with playfully vulgar intonations in my voice, I describe the plot. And it gives me a nasty pleasure.

When I look at the picture alone, I inevitably always come to the thought that in an overly selective search for happiness, we are losing the most precious thing in the world - life time. We pay not so much with tears and suffering for all the unreasonably missed, lost opportunities, but also with this most valuable item - time, allotted to us by God's grace to each in his own measure. And, in the end, we still stop at the sad necessity of taking what we can still take, or being left with nothing at all.

I peer with tension into the small space of the canvas and begin to feel in myself completely different sensations that the artist wanted to evoke in the viewer. I begin to understand that they both have accumulated an irritating weariness in anticipation of the fulfillment of romantic hopes. And that both have already come to a sober, everyday understanding that it is not that one cannot demand anything from life or fate, but sometimes one should only humbly ask.

And now they deliberately turn a blind eye to all the visible and already easily guessed shortcomings in each other, with the hope, in spite of everything, to jointly create, at least not bright, but so long-awaited and well-deservedly earned happiness.

And then, who knows, maybe life experience, albeit unsuccessful, acquired by each individual, and also the persistent desire, already in the real world, far from romantic dreams, to finally get everything possible from life, will become the basis for the rapprochement of two tired hearts.

You can, of course, standing in front of this genre picture, laugh evilly and cruelly in front of Fedotov’s creation, or, on the contrary, be imbued with a feeling of pity for the two unhappy lovers that hurts to the point of tears. But who said that later in life happiness will not smile on them. Who said that they are doomed to a joyless existence devoid of warmth? The world of human relationships in the most sensitive and subtle areas is so rich, varied and colorful.

And how it will manifest itself in these two - not even the most talented imagination can now predict. No amount of mathematics or the most reasonable approach will help you figure it out. This is the living miracle of life, in which we alone must rely.

And parents? Now they hid behind the curtain in bated breath and impatiently waiting to finally hear the cherished word uttered by their beloved, but also somewhat fed up child. And now they sign themselves with the sign of the cross. It's finished. A stone has been lifted from my soul. A little joy finally came to this house, which had long been filled with despondency and a hopeless expectation to provide a home for someone who was suffering in loneliness, a dear child suffering in loneliness.

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.

for materials: “Practice-oriented excursions to THEATRICAL THEORY OF ACTION Peter Mikhailovich ERSHOV"

Commentary by V.M. Bukatov on Fedotov’s painting “The Picky Bride”

The picture was painted by P.A. Fedotov as a sign of respect for the memory of I.A. Krylov, who died three years ago. The fabulist played a big role in causing the guards officer, a self-taught artist, to resign and become a famous but impoverished genre artist. Who at one time was able to create a large watercolor painting “Meeting of the Grand Duke” in three months. For which the prince granted the artist a diamond ring.

The main and even tragic problem in the work of the self-taught artist turned out to be his desire for external beauty. Taking the famous fable “The Picky Bride” as the basis for the plot, the artist carefully selects items. None of them seems superfluous: the top hat with the gloves placed in it, overturned by the Groom when he quickly rushed to the feet of the Bride, and the furnishings.

But if Krylov’s bride has almost faded, then Fedotov’s she is just beginning to fade. Therefore, the sharp satire of Krylov’s ending - and I was glad that I married a cripple - turns out to be transformed into sweet secular humor.

It is believed that the talented self-taught artist is trying to fight his training in presenting a story through the prism of watercolor beauty. He covered his finished works with a dirty, cloudy layer of varnish that quickly began to crack. As a result, Fedotov’s paintings stand out in galleries both for their small (cabinet) size and for their powerful craquelure. As if their storage conditions were too terrible.

Excursions on THEATER THEORY OF ACTION

The groom is located “from below”, in a fairly large (interested) and light weight. This gives the impression not so much of passion or calculation, but of still young agility.
The main thing in the bride’s extension is light weight (she is delighted) and the impact of “ get off " This makes her more of a coquettish prude than a fastidious mince, as stated by Krylov in his famous fable.

The thoroughness of the work on the painting suggests that the artist more than once reconciled himself and his fate with the plot depicted during his work. Therefore, Fedotov involuntarily slipped into embellishment of the plot and complementarity towards the characters he portrayed. He gave the early bald head to the hunchback, clearly his own.
It was the spiritual gentleness of the author’s criticism that made his paintings very popular among the St. Petersburg and Moscow public. Raising the cultural bar of their idle curiosity to an interest in the social and artistic features of genre and everyday painting in Russian art.

Vyacheslav Bukatov

Painting by P.A. Fedotov's "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.

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