Ivano Nikolaevich Kramskoy "inconsolable grief"

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy entered the domestic painting as an innovator, reformer and popularizer.

short biography

Kramskoy I.N. was born in 1837 in Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh province in the family of a clerk.

He graduated with honors from a college in the same city, studied painting and worked as an apprentice in an icon-painting workshop, but only for a year. At 16, he left his hometown and traveled for three years in Russia, practicing the skills of a painter, watercolorist and retoucher with a Kharkov photographer.

In 1857, Kramskoy entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, having no special education. However, he did not finish his studies at the Academy, as he headed the “riot of fourteen” and in the form of a protest against the existing traditions of the institution, he left the students, interrupting his studies.

In 1863, he began working in the Society for the Support of Artists as a teacher. It is headed by a group of associates who organize the Artel of Artists, and then the Partnership of Traveling Exhibitions.

I. N. Kramskoy: characteristic of creativity

The main genre in which I.N. Kramskoy worked was a portrait, sometimes standing on the verge of a domestic genre. The artist was interested in the features of a person-citizen in his characters, with the wealth and dignity of his inner world, with his feelings and feelings, hopes and aspirations. Kramskoy was a master of psychological characterization.

Loyal to his work and possessing a great thirst for painting, industriousness and indefatigable working capacity, I.N. Kramskoy passed away at the easel, working on a portrait of Dr. Raufhus. He lived only half a century, but left his descendants a rich artistic heritage. Many of the master’s paintings are stored in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery.

The story of the creation of the most dramatic canvas

Kramskoy’s family life was tragic. Very quickly, he lost two younger sons. As a result of the tragic experiences of the artist, he wrote a dramatic canvas. Kramskoy’s “inconsolable grief,” according to I. Ye. Repin, was “living reality”. Sources claim that the features of the main character show the features of the author’s wife, Sophia Nikolaevna.

For "inconsolable grief" Kramskoy for a very long time chose a compositional solution. He drew several of his options, but settled on the simplest and most concise. In general, the work lasted four years.

Kramskoy's canvas "inconsolable grief": description

Most of the canvas is taken up in height by the executed figure of a grieving woman in a mourning dress, with a scarf in her hand, with which she covers her mouth. There are no more tears, but the gaze is fixed on one point. The figure seemed frozen in its sculpturality. There is something similar to the image of the mother on the canvas of Kramskoy and the monument to Mother Motherland, mourning for her sons.

At the feet of the woman, flowers are scattered, as if laid on the monument. Each of them is not just a flower - a symbol. The red tulip symbolizes enormous all-consuming love, the yellow daffodils are symbols of death at a young age, but also rebirth. Daffodils still symbolize the possibility of insanity, which, according to mythology, can lead to a long inhalation of their aroma, as well as deceived hopes. The green stems of blossoming and not yet letting out buds of plants symbolize eternal life. Continuing the description of Kramskoy’s picture “Inconsolable grief”, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that a woman is standing near a box of flowers and a wreath, apparently ready for the funeral ceremony. A round wreath also means eternity and immortality. And pink, white and light yellow roses woven into it - tenderness, purity and purity, the care of a loving woman - in this case, the mother.

The heroine is in a simple household environment, which further emphasizes the reality of what is happening. She stands at the very edge of the picture, almost stepping beyond its borders in the direction of emptiness and frightening suspense. The same black void gapes behind the back of the mother - in the background behind the curtain. The symbol of spiritual emptiness, the darkness that filled the woman’s heart, the invisibility of a positive future - only black grief, pain and longing after the tragedy await her ahead!

The color of Kramskoy’s canvas “Inconsolable grief”, as well as her mood, is gloomy. Used colors of brown and gray colors.

Kramskoy’s canvas “Inconsolable grief” is one of the most dramatically saturated works of the master.