V.E. Makovsky was a partnership of the Wanderers, whose ideological inspiration was critic V.V. Stasov, and material support was provided by the patron P. Tretyakov.
The situation in the country during the creation of the picture
At that time, after the liberation of the peasantry from serfdom, reforms were carried out in the country in all spheres of life. All of them led to the emergence of capitalist relations. The processes were painful for all walks of life. But they were incomplete, somewhere half-hearted. Therefore, society was divided into two parts: moderately liberal and extremist. The first was represented by the so-called "Narodniks" who made unsuccessful attempts to bring together the intelligentsia and the common people, those who were called "people", but did not consider themselves equal. The painting “Date” shows the meeting of precisely these so-called “people”, with sincere sympathy, so much so that you deeply regret them and cannot be forgotten for a long time.
Artist's life
Makovsky Vladimir Egorovich (1846-1920) was born in Moscow. An intelligent family did not even imagine that Vladimir would later be carried away by genre paintings from the life of the common people and that the painful painting “Date” would come out from under his brush.
Glinka, Gogol, Schepkin, Bryullov often visited their house, musical and drawing evenings were arranged. Five years V. Makovsky studied at the School of Architecture and Sculpture in Moscow and graduated with the title of artist of the III degree.
Independent Searches
When Makovsky married, he continued to live with his family in his father’s house and, wherever he could, worked part time, even with icon painting. When his first child was born, Vladimir Yegorovich became interested in the life of children.
This happened after 1869. This interest was manifested in a number of works, including the painting “Date”. But first, he would write “Grandma's Game,” which P. Tretyakov would buy, and that would mean that he was recognized as an artist. The Crimean War will not pass by his attention, as it will occupy the minds of the whole society. The result will be an album with 21 genre paintings from the life of Sevastopol. He practically not only simply illustrates the “Sevastopol Stories”, but also selects those moments where the staunchness and mutual assistance of people were most manifested.
Wanderers
Artists recognized the need to bring their works to a wide range of people and actively began to create a new community that opposed salon art.
Later, at such an exhibition, the painting “Date” will be presented. But there were few paintings and money. Nevertheless, the artists believed in success. The first exhibition was held in 1871. Such masters as Perov and Shishkin, Bryullov and Repin, Kramskoy and Polenov took part in it.
This is a painting by Makovsky “Date”, presented at one of these traveling exhibitions.
A boy of about seven to ten years old, the family is no longer able to simply feed, not to dress. And now, from free life in the countryside, they give him to the city, “to the people”, to work not for money, but for food (this will be done later by his grandfather with Alyosha Peshkov). It is necessary to do the most dirty work, for which no one else undertakes. The mud-stained boy’s clothes speak of this. Mother, with deep sadness and silence, looks at how eagerly the little son attacked her hotel. She bowed her head in her hand, and her whole pose expresses immeasurable fatigue from the long road, and bitterness from how difficult it is for a child who still has to run and play, but a hard life makes him work. All this shows the picture of Makovsky's “Date”. Their rare encounters probably end in tears, which the mother hides from her son, and he from her. Both - a boy who has grown up early and a tired mother over the years, understand that they have no other choice. A woman sits in a dark room, beyond which no one will let her in, and carefully looks at the child.
We continue the verbal description of Makovsky’s painting “Date”. The peasant woman is dressed simply, in a rustic way, in a sheepskin coat and shawl. Apparently, winter is on the street. And the little son, in spite of the cold, is barefoot. He is very pale, since he does not see the street. Sad as a mother, and serious. In a dirty little room on a barrel there is a jug. From it you can wash the roll that the boy eats. Even the description of Makovsky’s painting “Date” conveys hopelessness. At the barrel on the floor lies a small maternal lapel. It is empty, there is nothing to carry in it, since there is no money. The picture is painted in dark colors, conveying the whole joyless life of mother and son.
The work conveys both tragedy and the typicality of this situation for poor people who do not have a livelihood. This concludes the description of the painting "Date."