He lived only 48 years, filled with constant intense creative work and containing a lot. Vasily Perov - the most prominent representative of the Moscow school of painting of the XIX century. He was one of the founders of the legendary Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.
His work has several distinct periods, one of which is a masterpiece of genre painting - the painting "Fisherman".
From the people and for the people
An illegitimate bureaucratic son, he even received a surname by the name of his godfather - Vasiliev, and the humorous nickname, which later became a surname, came from a clerk who taught him to read and write. The boy was struck by his ability to calligraphy. Vasily Perov knew the life of a simple person in all its manifestations - all its many burdens and small joys. To express them with all the strength of a talent given by nature - in this he saw his main task.
The first known genre paintings of the young artist, written by him after 1860 (in the last year and immediately after graduation from the Academy of Arts), contained a critical or satirical assessment of some phenomena of Russian life. For example, Pharisaism, which is characteristic of part of the Russian clergy, he denounces in the famous painting "Tea drinking in Mytishchi" (1862).
Later, Vasily Perov thickens the general psychological tone of his paintings, in the plots devoted to the most defenseless part of the people accusatory or tragic notes are clearly heard. A vivid example is the famous Troika, written in 1866.
"Quiet passions"
At the next stage of his life and work, Vasily Perov again changes the nature of his view of human life. He becomes more attentive and sensitive, able to examine smaller details. At this time, his famous, including writer's, portraits appear, and genre paintings are painted not by satire, but by good humor or light irony.
A number of paintings appear, traditionally united in a single cycle, conventionally called "Quiet Passion". It includes the super popular “Hunters on a halt” (1871), “Birds”, written in 1870, “Dovecote” (1874) and “Botanist” (1874). Each of them tells about simple and ordinary hobbies of a simple person.
These hobbies are different. People of different nature and origin inhabit Perov’s paintings. But there is a general thing: these canvases do not tell about actions accompanied by the expression of dramatic feelings - condemnation, pity or sympathy. Heroes of paintings about "quiet passions" often cause a smile full of humor or good irony. Another feeling uniting these canvases is no less valuable - a feeling of unity with nature. With his picturesque mastery Perov emphasizes the enduring importance of these concepts. One of the main things that Vasily Perov wrote on this subject is The Fisherman (1871), which was also presented at the World Exhibition in Vienna in 1873.
Peace scene
On a rectangular canvas 91 meters high and 68 centimeters wide, the artist depicts a very peaceful scene. These are not the passionately revealing, acutely social canvases with which the enlightened Russian public became known to Vasily Perov. The painting "Fisherman" tells about human passions of a different kind. By all indications, this fisherman came to the river for his own pleasure, and not to get food, and he does not look like a sharp-headed man.
Judging by the attention with which the artist examines his hero, his fishing equipment, the surrounding landscape, it becomes clear that he considers this filling of human life no less important than the historical exploits of great heroes, or events that have the character of global dramas and tragedies.
Main character
All the attention of the viewer is attracted to the central character of the picture, occupying the main space of the canvas. Then you may not even remember how many people are in the picture of Vasily Perov. In the background sits a second fisherman, busy with some important task of setting up his equipment, looking like a harmonious part of a quiet early cool morning in a small pond.
The artist’s skill in conveying the psychology of the moment is impressive. The picture of Vasily Perov is a rich and fascinating story about a short moment that has absorbed a lot.
He is truly engrossed in excitement, carefully looks at the bobber, already bending slightly, resting his hands on his knees and leaning forward, ready to instantly grab the fishing rod in order to hook the prey. The surface of the water near the shore is calm, like a mirror. Obviously, the bobber was just swinging from the bite, and the experienced angler noticed the first waves diverging from it ...
Precision parts
It is not known whether Vasily Perov himself was fond of fishing. The picture "Fisherman" contains an entourage that says a lot. We are not new to this business. He carefully prepared for the process. He has something to sit on, something to hide from the weather, and something to eat. His rods are not just cut branches. They have special metal joints. On the net is a net - if there will be a particularly large prey, and at the feet - a special fishing rod equipped with silver bells. There is no doubt - this is a professional!
One can only admire the skill with which the foreground of the painting is written. Perov appears as a painter who does not know the difficulties in transmitting the game of morning light on an earthenware jug, on boots polished to a shine or on a metal can with bait, and the accuracy of the details is worthy of a textbook on the history of fishing!
Man is a part of nature
In the works of earlier stages of his work, Perov uses the natural environment as a means of escalating dramatic feelings, and in Rybolov, a person dissolves in the natural environment, being an integral part of it.
The best nibble is at dawn! The first rays illuminated the top of the tree in the background, and the whole sky is already filled with milky light, but the remains of the night still lie by the water, together with the invigorating coolness dissolving in the coming day ...
Hours spent on fishing are not included in the lifespan - isn't that what Vasily Perov painted his picture about? "Fisherman" - a picture that endows the viewer with a bright, serene mood, so rarely seen in Russian classical painting of the 19th century.