Gerasimov's painting "After the Rain": history of creation and description

The artist Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov stood at the origins of a new, Soviet pictorial art. His brush belongs to a lot of official, "ceremonial" and informal, "everyday" portraits of leaders of the first persons of the state, including Lenin and Stalin, representatives of the Bolshevik, Communist intelligentsia. He also captured the most important events in the life of the country - the launch of the metro station, a round date for the celebration of the October Revolution. A multiple winner of the Stalin Prize, who was awarded medals and orders, including the Order of Lenin, Honored Artist, the First President of the Academy of Arts, Alexander Mikhailovich, at the same time, considered these works as the main ones in his work. The most expensive of his brainchild was a small canvas, very simple in the plot, in which, however, reflected the true soul of the great Artist, Master.

Wet Terrace

This is Gerasimov's painting "After the Rain," the second title is "The Wet Terrace." It is known to every schoolboy here for some generation, is included in the school curriculum as a manual for writing essays. Reproductions from the canvas are placed in the textbooks on the Russian language for grades 6-7 (different versions). The very picture of Gerasimov "After the Rain" is in one of the exhibition halls of the Tretyakov Gallery. It is painted in oil on canvas, the size of the work is small - 78 by 85 cm. The viewers invariably crowd in front of the canvas, carefully peering into the details, studying, admiring, absorbing themselves.

The best creation

In Soviet painting, especially the first half of the 20th century, there are very few works of this type, like Gerasimov's painting After the Rain. Subtle lyricism, amazingly accurate transmission of the poetically clean, fresh atmosphere of the summer nature, washed by the rain, juicy color, special energy - all this makes the work of the artist very special. No wonder the master of it and only considered it her best creation. Time has confirmed the prioritization of priorities. Of course, the bright talent of the author is clearly demonstrated in his other works. But it was Gerasimov's painting After the Rain that survived ideological storms and disputes and was out of time, outside the politicization of art, proving its real aesthetic value.

Creating a masterpiece

Let's move back to the distant year 1935. What happens at this time in the USSR? First, the 7th Congress of Soviets, significant by important state decisions. The congress of collective-farm strikers, on which the working peasants report to the government about their loyalty to the chosen course. The movement of weavers-multi-operators begins. The first line of the Moscow metro is being launched. Being in the thick of events, Gerasimov responds to them with bright, original creativity. By 1935, he was promoted to the front ranks of the best masters of socialist painting. However, the artist feels a certain emotional breakdown, fatigue and a desire to abandon everything and go home, to the remote provincial town of Kozlov, which is in Tambov region - to rest.

It was there that Gerasimov's painting After the Rain was written. The history of the creation of the masterpiece came to us in the memoirs of his sister. The artist was delighted with a completely transformed garden after a heavy rainfall, a wet terrace, sparkling like a mirror, with an unusual freshness and air fragrance, the most unusual atmosphere in nature. In a feverish impatience, taking up the palette, Alexander Mikhailovich in one breath, in just 3 hours wrote a canvas, which entered the gold fund of Russian and Soviet landscape painting.

Coming to the analysis of the work (an element of the lesson)

As already mentioned, in the school course, Gerasimov's painting "After the Rain" is being disassembled. The writing on it helps to develop the skills of written communication, the creative abilities of students, contributes to the formation of aesthetic taste, a subtle perception of nature. Let us join the wonderful canvas. In what year was Gerasimov's painting "After the Rain" written, we already know - in 1935, in the summer. In the foreground we see a corner of a wooden terrace. She dazzles brilliantly, as if carefully polished and varnished. The strongest summer shower has just ended. The nature has not yet recovered, everything is disturbed and ruffled, and the last drops still do not-no, and are broken off with a loud bang on the wooden floorboards. Dark brown, with standing puddles, they mirror each object as a mirror. The piercing sun leaves its warm golden glow on the floor.

Foreground

What is unusual about Gerasimov's painting After the Rain? Description of the canvas is difficult to do in parts, fragments. It's a tremendous impression on the viewer entirely. Every detail of Gerasimov's work is meaningful and harmonious. Here is a banister and a bench. Closer to the inside of the veranda, they are darker, as this part of the terrace is lit less. But there, where even a rare sun falls, more and more golden glare, and the color of the tree is warm, yellow-brown hues.

To the left of the spectator there is a table on the terrace on elegant carved legs. The worktop, dark in itself, seems completely black because the wood is wet. Like everything else, it flashes in a mirror, reflecting both an upturned glass, and a jug with a bouquet, and more and more the sky that brightens after a thunderstorm. Why did the artist need this piece of furniture? It organically fits into the environment, without it the terrace would be empty, creating the impression of an uninhabited, uncomfortable. The table introduces a hint of a friendly family, hospitable tea-drinking, a joyful, cordial atmosphere in the picture. A glass glass, inverted by a whirlwind and miraculously not fallen, speaks of how strong the wind and the rain were. About the same hinted disheveled flowers in a bouquet, scattered petals. White, red and pink roses look particularly touching and defenseless. But we can imagine how sweetly and gently they smell now, washed by the rain. Unusually poetic this jug and roses in it look.

Background of the picture

And outside the terrace, the garden is rampant and raging. From the wet foliage, large drops of rain fall down. It is clean, dark green, bright, fresh, like what happens after a refreshing shower. Looking at the picture, you begin to feel very clearly the intoxicating smell of wet greens and sun-warmed earth, flowers from the garden and something very dear, close, dear, for which we love nature. Beyond the trees you can see the roof of the barn, in the lumens of the branches, a white, brightening sky after the thunder-storm. Lightness, enlightenment, joy of life we feel, admiring the wonderful work of Gerasimov. And we learn to be attentive to nature, to love it, to notice an amazing charm.