10 paintings by Russian artists that will make you CRY (PICS)
1. Konstantin Flavitsky, ‘Princess Tarakanova’, 1864
The mysterious Princess Tarakanova claimed to be the daughter of Elizabeth Petrovna by Count Alexei Razumovsky, the empress' favorite and alleged secret husband. The avanturist claimed to have lived with her mother until the age of 10 and that Peter III was her regent. The impostor was later exposed and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she subsequently died. The painting depicts a scene where the prison cell is being flooded.
2. Vasily Perov, ‘Troika’, 1866
In this painting, the artist depicted the hardship and horror of child labor. Three young apprentices, like draft horses, drag an icy barrel of water along a winter road. The children, most likely apprenticed in hopes of a warm place to stay and food, drag their load past the monastery walls, adding drama to the painting. They can count on no help or mercy.
3. Konstantin Makovsky, ‘Little Organ Grinders at the Fence in Winter’, 1868
In the 1860s, Makovsky turned to genre painting. He depicted scenes from everyday life and folk festivals. But, he wasn't only interested in the joyful side of life. The subjects of his paintings were children from poor families, orphans forced to earn their own living.
4. Ivan Kramskoy, ‘Inconsolable Grief’, 1884
Kramskoy worked on this painting for four years. It appeared after the tragic events in the artist's family: In 1871, he and his wife lost two sons. The woman in the painting, wearing a mourning dress, resembles his wife, Sofya Nikolaevna. She stands by a table with flowers and a wreath is visible among the bouquets…
5. Viktor Vasnetsov, ‘Alyonushka’, 1881
"There was so much melancholy, loneliness and purely Russian sadness in her eyes that I simply gasped when I met her," the artist recalled of a chance encounter with the girl at his dacha (country house). Her first viewers said that the drama of her life and the terrible sorrow of her soul could be read in her face.
6. Vasily Polenov, ‘The Sick Woman’, 1886
The artist began painting the portrait of the dying woman in 1873: he was shocked by the death of 18-year-old Maria Obolenskaya. They were both members of a local art circle and their acquaintance soon blossomed into passionate feelings. In Spring 1873, Maria contracted measles, which was aggravated by pneumonia; she died a few days later. Grieving her loss, Polenov decided to paint a portrait of his beloved on her deathbed.
7. Vasily Perov, ‘Seeing Off the Dead’, 1865
The artist depicted the grief of the peasant family casually, as if the characters had come to terms with their loss and resigned themselves to fate. The widow is driving an old sleigh, sitting on the edge of a coffin. Children are positioned on either side: a boy in his father's sheepskin coat and hat has fallen asleep, while a girl, lost in her thoughts, embraces the coffin.
8. Nikolai Yaroshenko, ‘Life Everywhere’, 1888
The artist painted this painting, which depicts a prison car carrying prisoners to hard labor, inspired by Leo Tolstoy's short story ‘What Do Men Live By?’ It tells of an angel who descended to earth and lived the life of an ordinary person, with its hardships and trials. His words, "Every man lives not by self-concern, but by love," are reflected in the painting.
9. Viktor Vasnetsov, ‘From Apartment to Apartment’, 1876
A couple of old men with their few belongings walk along the frozen Neva River – to a new home, perhaps worse than their old one. The impoverished, unwanted old men are lost in the midst of a winter St. Petersburg landscape.
10. Ivan Bogdanov, ‘The Newcomer’, 1893
Another story about a lost childhood. This painting actually has a second title – ‘In Apprenticeship’. Its main subject is a young apprentice. He joined a shoemaker's shop for a living, hoping to someday get back on his feet and open his own business. But, for now, life is not going well for him: the drunken craftsman either scolds or lectures the boy, bringing him to tears.