Linear drawing of a household genre. School encyclopedia
The everyday genre in painting is one of the most widespread and ancient.
Everyday genre is a genre of fine art dedicated to everyday private and public life, usually contemporary with the artist.
Antiquity
Scenes of everyday life were reproduced in Africa and Ancient Egypt even before the era of European antiquity.
Here are images of everyday scenes found in the funerary storeroom of Nakta (Ancient Egypt)
In Ancient Greece, the everyday genre was present in vase painting.
Acrobatic. British Museum (London)
In the countries of the East, the first everyday sketches appeared in Chinese painting from the 4th century. n. e. Often medieval manuscripts were decorated with miniatures, which also contained everyday scenes. The same can be said about medieval Europe.
"Woman with a Parrot" India (XVI century)
Renaissance
During the Renaissance in Italy, the Netherlands, and then in other European countries, artists stood out who worked, along with others, in this genre: Jan van Eyck, Bouts (Netherlands), the Limburg brothers (France), Schongauer (Germany).
Development of the everyday genre in Holland
But in Holland in the 17th century. The everyday genre received special development. Dutch artists were attracted to all aspects of ordinary life that they saw around them: sailors, fishing boats, peasants, livestock, unpretentious surroundings, quiet streets and alleys, abandoned courtyards... Many artists turned to the everyday genre: Frans Hals, Jan Vermeer, Matthias Stom, Pieter de Hooch, Jan Steen and many others, more famous and not so famous.
Matthias Stom "Young man reading by candlelight"
Matthias Stom "Musicians"
Pieter de Hooch "Mother and daughter near the barn" (1658). Amsterdam
Jan Steen “Cage with a Parrot” (XVII century). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
But in other countries, the everyday genre still occupied a modest place and was art of the “lowest grade” (in Italy, France, Germany, Flanders, Spain). Even the appeal to the everyday genre of such great artists as Rubens or Velazquez did little to change the demeaning attitude towards everyday paintings.
Rubens and other artists “Animal Farm in Winter”
Household genre in the 18th century
But gradually the attitude towards the everyday genre is changing. There are artists who work mainly only in this genre. In France, these are Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher, Nicolas Lancret, Sebastian Bourdon, Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin, Claude Vernet, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Jean Baptiste Greuze and others.
A. Watteau “Society in the Park” (1718-1719). Dresden Gallery
This artist’s everyday paintings are usually poetic; he knows how to see something romantic in the simple and ordinary, although the time for romanticism has not yet arrived.
Elements of a truthful depiction of real life are already visible in the paintings of artists from other countries: William Hogarth, Thomas Gainsborough (Great Britain), engraver D. Khodovetsky (Germany), J.P. Norblena (Poland), F. Goya (Spain), M. Shibanova, I. Ermeneva (Russia).
M. Shibanov “Celebration of the wedding contract” (1777)
A new look at life
In the 19th century The everyday genre is experiencing another flourishing in different countries, the heroes of the paintings are those who were considered outcasts: the sick, the poor, slaves, prisoners - people of the social bottom. Previously, art did not notice them. Although captives and slaves appeared on canvases back in Baroque art, they were only a decorative detail in the life of monarchs. These characters have acquired independent significance only now.
Giovanni Segantini “Return from the Forest” (Italy)
Vincent Van Gogh "Prisoners' Walk" (Netherlands)
Gustave Courbet “Poor Peasant Woman in Winter” (France)
Vasily Vereshchagin “Visiting a prisoner by his family in Italy” (Russia)
Artists - supporters of the everyday genre: Theodore Rousseau, Honore Daumier, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Gauguin (France), M.A. Vrubel, I.E. Repin, N.A. Yaroshenko, V.A. Serov (Russia), K. Hokusai, Ando Hiroshige (Japan), Käthe Kollwitz, Adolf Menzel (Germany), etc.
P. A. Fedotov “The Breakfast of an Aristocrat” (1849-1850). State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)
Vanity, life for show, lies, external brilliance - all these human weaknesses were well known to the artist and disgusted him. Therefore, he has several paintings with similar themes. Realistically, with great irony and a bit of pity, he shows the owner taken by surprise by an uninvited guest. Why do we see pity here? When poverty is carefully hidden using this method, it is always a pity. Pity for a person for whom the interior of his apartment is most important (so that it is no worse than that of others), the opinion of others about him, and so on. The artist does not show us a caricature of this aristocrat, he simply talks about the vain pettiness of people who tend to see the main thing in the secondary. And this secondary thing takes possession of a person so much that it becomes his essence. How he tries at the last moment to somehow disguise the evidence (his poverty) by covering with a book the slice of black bread that constitutes this “aristocrat’s” breakfast!
Household genre in the era of symbolism
At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. In the art of symbolism and Art Nouveau style, the everyday genre is somewhat modified: everyday scenes are depicted and interpreted as timeless symbols. In this regard, we recall the work of F. Hodler in Switzerland, V. E. Borisov-Musatov in Russia.
Further development of the everyday genre
In the 20th century, when social problems and contradictions in all areas of life intensified, wars, revolutions, national liberation movements raged, people were confused about present and future catastrophes, artists responded to these events and tried to analyze what was happening in their paintings using an artistic method . In the 20th century The artists E. Munch (Norway), Pablo Picasso (France), Ignacio Zuloaga (Spain), George Bellows, Rockwell Kent, Andrew Wyeth (USA), Boris Kustodiev, A.A. were considered recognized masters of the everyday genre. Plastov, A.A. Murashko, Z.E. Serebryakova, D.D. Zhilinsky, G.M. Korzhev, V.E. Popkov, F. Reshetnikov (Russia), Renato Guttuso (Italy), Diego Rivera (Mexico), etc.
A. Plastov “Elections of the Poor Committee”
D. Bellows "New York" (1911)
Works of the everyday genre often serve to express deep philosophical thoughts about life.
V. Popkov “Grandma Anisya was a good person” (1971-1973)
The unknown grandmother Anisya is a symbol of the immutability of life for any person. The film contains the motif of an individual song (already completed, but still resounding in the hearts of loved ones) and epic choral singing. All this happens in the temple, and this temple is nature.
Jan Vermeer of Delft MAID WITH A JUG OF MILK Approx. 1658 Amsterdam (Netherlands), Rijksmuseum
The predecessors of works of the everyday genre can be considered rock paintings made by primitive people, which depict hunting scenes, ritual dances and processions. Some paintings of Egyptian and Etruscan tombs also had a genre character: cultivating the land, collecting fruits and vegetables, hunting, fishing and feasts. It was believed that these images provided the deceased with a rich and well-fed life in the afterlife. Ancient Greek vases were also decorated with everyday scenes.
During the Renaissance, many historical works acquired a pronounced genre character: legendary events were often “transferred” to modern times and were saturated with many everyday details. And in Rus', the genre first appeared in book miniatures and was called “everyday letters.”
THE FIRST GENRE ARTISTS IN EUROPE
Jan Vermeer of Delft GIRL WITH A LETTER AT AN OPEN WINDOW 1650s. Dresden, Old Masters Gallery
Hieronymus Bosch, the great Dutch painter who lived at the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, and the Italian artist of the 16th century are considered the founders of the everyday genre in European art. Caravaggio (full name: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio). But everyday painting emerged as an independent genre only in the 17th century. in Holland, which had recently won independence and founded the first bourgeois republic. After many years of Spanish rule, artists especially keenly felt the charm of a quiet, peaceful life and began to glorify the simplest activities - caring for children, cleaning the room, reading letters.
One of the most famous masters is Jan Vermeer. The master’s favorite character is a woman immersed in household chores, such as the heroine in the famous painting “The Maid with a Jug of Milk.”
EVERYDAY GENRE IN RUSSIA
P.A. Fedotov MATCHING OF A MAJOR 1848 Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery
In Russia, K. P. Bryullov (his “Italian series”) and A. G. Venetsianov, who devoted all his work to the life of Russian peasants, were among the first to turn to the everyday genre.
P. A. Fedotov introduced a satirical note to genre painting. His painting “Major's Matchmaking” is a funny story about a bankrupt officer who, wanting to improve his well-being, is going to marry a merchant's daughter.
The everyday genre in painting is perhaps most associated with prejudices and vicissitudes in interpretation. In it, as in literature, you can easily see the beginning of the plot, and sometimes against this background you can build a whole story. Paintings in this genre depict scenes from the private and public life of a person. Unlike portraiture and history painting, they do not refer to famous personalities or important historical events. They reflect the typical flow of time. The people depicted in the paintings of the everyday genre are not known to history, and the events are not of a global nature. To a greater extent, everyday painting provides a detailed description of established traditions.
Naturally, the everyday genre in painting is inextricably linked with other common genres. It is difficult to imagine it without detailed descriptions: home table setting, display of familiar dishes or the furnishings in the room closely border the genre of still life. The presence of images of people in everyday painting has much in common with. And scenes from life in the lap of nature, by conveying colors and the smallest details, connect this genre with. However, the presence of a clear storyline in such paintings, the ability to understand and penetrate into the ongoing events depicted on the canvas, as well as special realism, distinguish this genre as a separate direction of painting.
The everyday genre of painting can rightfully be considered one of the oldest areas of fine art. Primitive drawings depicting rituals, processions and hunting are the origins of the modern everyday genre. In medieval times, genre scenes became popular in art, reflecting the artist’s specific views on everyday life. Since the Renaissance, religious paintings begin to be saturated with bright everyday details. This can be seen in the art of Hertgen, Sint Jans, Lorenzetti, Giotto. The first famous images of the life of the working people belong to Schopenhauer and the Limburg brothers. In the 17th century, works in the everyday style were created by the brush of Rembrandt, Steen, and Brouwer.
The basis of this direction is the departure from mythology and the manifestation of the first interest in real life. The center of the work of the everyday genre is still the person. However, he is no longer surrounded by the luxury of palaces, but by simple furnishings, ordinary street buildings and simple everyday objects. For the most part, people are depicted doing their daily activities. Here a quiet homely atmosphere, permeated with extraordinary cordiality and warmth, or the backbreaking labor of the peasants placed on their shoulders by a given historical era can be glorified. Here you can see both everyday work and random life events. The main features of the genre are everyday life, simplicity and realism. Often such paintings are small in size.
I especially fell in love with the everyday genre of Russian painting. The famous painting “They Didn’t Expect” by Repin combines certain features of everyday and historical genres. A simple family of intellectuals is shown in their everyday surroundings, into which vague confusion bursts in with the unexpected return of a revolutionary. The logical design of the painting, the display of details of the situation and the naturalness of the positions are signs of the artist’s everyday genre. Another well-known picture in the everyday genre is “Fresh Cavalier” by P.A. Fedotova. An ordinary everyday situation from the life of an official is imbued with light humor - the mood of the progressive intelligentsia of that time is reflected here. The film reveals a fierce struggle against the idealization of old times about morals and man. Art is closely connected with reality. Thanks to these features, it was highly appreciated among critics and the artist’s contemporaries. In terms of its content, “Fresh Cavalier” can easily be compared to the outstanding works of literary classics of that era.
Paintings of the genre "Household"
There has always been attention to everyday life in art.
Each era in art was represented by some separate, general images that excited the minds of artists, poets and musicians. But the everyday genre cannot be described so easily with the help of images, since each artist saw everyday life in his own way.
It is interesting that since the Middle Ages people have been interested in everyday motives, but then it was not so obvious and telling, since the humanism that flourished in those times set a new framework. For this reason, the everyday genre in art acquired a humanistic overtones. So when did this trend begin?
Even in primitive rock paintings, everyday moments were depicted, for example, buffalo hunting, and in ancient Eastern painting, reliefs and stucco paintings showed kings, nobles and other court officials from a completely ordinary human side. But everyday scenes took official shape during the formation of bourgeois society, that is, again, the very trends of that time set a new genre in art. The genre of everyday life flourished in connection with the need of artists for realism and depiction of social issues that were facing at that time.
These questions could be narrow, reflecting only one side of life, for example, housework, the activities of cooks, conversation, trying on outfits, etc. (Velasquez), but could be filled with hidden, deliberately laid meaning. Here, Caravaggio, painted unpleasant figures that any of us necessarily strives to avoid: fortune tellers, cheaters, deceivers and gamblers, but he depicted them, most often, in detail, conveying the meaning to the viewer with their help. Each of them could be interpreted differently, some would see the problem of poverty, some would see lies, and others, perhaps, would see the desire to somehow earn a living in dishonest card players.
Each work of the author, executed in the everyday genre, reflects his understanding of the word “life” itself; for example, for Caravaggio (Italy) life is living by deception, in China – nobility and the idea of an honest husband, which is mainly associated with Confucianism, which presupposed these questions; in Japan and Korea, everyday life is the humor with which people approach life. But this is only at the very beginning of the development of this genre in art.
In the heyday of the Renaissance, scenes of everyday life begin to really resemble everyday life, even if the artist depicts something sublime, for example, the Madonna, the interior and surroundings are saturated with everyday objects. The Dutch brothers Jan and Hubert Van Eyck, Ambrogio Lorenzetti, and Hertgen tot Sint-Jans wrote on religious and everyday topics between the 14th and 15th centuries. These authors gave impetus to the development of a new everyday genre that seemed more familiar to modern humanity. Their work was continued in France and Germany, and mainly in Venice, where ordinary works, rich in measured human life, came out from under the brush of Giorgione and Carpaccio.
It is worth paying attention to the unadorned paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, among them the seemingly mythical, but so vital plot of “The Fall of Icarus.” This is not an ordinary depiction of the myth of Icarus, redrawn many times, this is truly a work filled with deep meaning, life goes on and no one notices any individual events that do not concern themselves. That is why Icarus himself is depicted as a small, almost imperceptible dot. What can we say about Bruegel’s “Flemish Proverbs”? Every centimeter of the canvas tells the viewer a separate story: someone throws pancakes on the roof of a house, someone hits their head against a wall, others bury a pig with all seriousness, and what’s most interesting is that each of the characters treats this without any sense of humor to their senseless, ridiculous actions.
Having overcome many changes along the way of its formation, the everyday genre in art was finally finally formed in the 17th century. The authors deliberately belittled the structure of everyday life familiar to everyone and showed the life of the lower social classes. Then the artists “got over” this period and combined reality and fiction, specifics and poetic perception in their works.
As for Russia, the genre of everyday life began to emerge here later, its heyday occurred in the 18th century. Artists paid special attention to the ordinary peasant; Russian artists contrasted the romantic idyll of foreign paintings with the terrible reality of peasant life, here there is poverty, and truthfulness, and dullness, and fatigue (Eremenev and Shibanov).
The issues of the peasantry did not remain in the 18th century, they smoothly flowed into the 19th, but the artists no longer wanted to expose anyone, so in the first half of this century they painted pictures of peasant painting embellished with humor, its cloudless times. In Russia at that time Ventsianov was working, in the USA Bingham and Mount, Kersting and Spitsberg in Germany. Only the French did not follow the layered canons; they introduced a spirit of protest into art, which survived until the 50-60s, when the theme of peasants tired of eternal meaningless labor became key.
The twentieth century completely changed the worldview of the people, and, accordingly, their way of life. The development of new technologies, war, industry - all this is reflected in the everyday genre. In art, sharpness, impulsiveness, and a focus on exploring all corners of the human “I” began to reign (Steilen, Riviera, Derkovich and Bolkanski). The authors sought to express through art the suffering of a particular segment of the population and its resilience, readiness to fight against power, foundations, and innovations.
The everyday orientation in art sought to show the life of the people, as a genre it was created to record individual events that had no historical value. Naturally, what kind of large-scale value can we talk about if at all times the lives of ordinary people were not of great importance. The artists who depicted everyday, everyday, village moments wanted to fix them in history.
Household (genre) painting.
Everyday painting (genre painting, genre) is a genre of painting dedicated to depicting the everyday life of a person, private and public.
The first everyday stories
Everyday scenes are found already in primitive rock paintings.
Frescoes on the walls of ancient Egyptian and Etruscan tombs depicted scenes of plowing and harvesting, hunting and fishing, dancing and feasts
Tomb frescoes at Beni Hasan, Egypt, c. 1950 BC uh
Tombs of "Hunting and Fishing" at Tarquinia, Etruria, 520-10. BC e. (*clickable)
These images had a magical meaning: they were supposed to provide the deceased with a rich and luxurious life in the afterlife.
Everyday stories are not uncommon in ancient Greek vase painting.
“Pelik with a swallow” by Euphronius, both – 5th century. BC e.
The origins of everyday painting
Household painting originated in the Renaissance within the historical era: legendary events were often “transferred” to modern times and were saturated with many everyday details.
F. del Cossa. Murals of the Palazzo Schifanoi in Ferrara, Italy, 1469-70 (*clickable)
True genre works were created by Caravaggio, who first began to paint people from the lower classes and the master of the Northern Renaissance.
Card players. Caravaggio. 1594-95 (*clickable)
Lutenist. Caravaggio, ca. 1595 (*clickable)
Magician. H. Bosch, 1475-80 (*clickable)
His wife also changed. M. van Reimerswaele, ser. 16th century (*clickable)
Peasant dance. P. Bruegel the Elder, 1568 (*clickable)
Peasant wedding. P. Bruegel the Elder, 1568
Household painting as an independent genre
Household painting emerged as an independent genre in the 17th century. in Holland; At the same time she experienced her first flowering in the painting of the “little Dutch”.
After many years of Spanish rule, artists especially keenly felt the charm of a quiet, peaceful life; Therefore, the simplest activities - taking care of children, cleaning the room, reading a letter - are covered in Dutch painting of the 17th century. high poetry.
Morning of a young lady. F. van Mieris. Senior
Woman peeling an apple. G. Terborch, approx. 1660
Girl with a letter. J. Vermeer of Delft
J. Wermeer of Delft. Maid with a jug of milk. OK. 1658 State Museum. Amsterdam (*clickable)
People from the lower classes in the paintings of the Spaniard D. Velazquez and the Frenchman L. Lenain are full of genuine nobility and greatness.
Seville water carrier. D. Velazquez, approx. 1621
L. Lehnen. Thrush family, 1640s. (*clickable)
The subject of historical painting is exceptional events that are important for an entire nation or for all of humanity.
Everyday painting depicts what is repeated in the lives of generations of people from year to year, from century to century: work and rest, weddings and funerals, quiet dates and crowded holiday processions.
The best genre works do not present everyday life in its boring monotony, but everyday life, inspired by the greatness of existence.
The characters of genre writers are, as a rule, nameless; they are “people from the crowd”, typical representatives of their era, nation, class, profession.
On the arable land. Spring. A. G. Venetsianova (*clickable)
Peasants' meal. L. Lehnen
Merchant's wife having tea. B. M. Kustodiev
Maslenitsa.B. M. Kustodiev (*clickable)
Explanation. V. E. Makovsky
Hunters at rest. V. G. Perov (*clickable)
Funeral in Ornans. G. Courbet (*clickable)
In France, J. B. S. Chardin wrote domestic scenes from the life of the third estate, warmed by warmth and comfort.
Prayer before dinner, Chardin, ca. 1740 (*clickable)
In days of wars and revolutions, history powerfully invades a person’s life, disrupting its usual course.
Works dedicated to the harsh life of critical eras lie on the verge of historical and everyday genres.
1919 Anxiety. K. S. Petrova-Vodkin
Satirical direction in the everyday genre
In the 18th century English painter and graphic artist W. Hogarth laid the foundation for the satirical movement in the everyday genre.
Fashionable marriage. W. Hogarth, 1743-45 (*clickable)
Realists
Realists of the 19th century. they strived for an accurate, objective reflection of reality and at the same time exalted the work of man on earth.
Stone crushers. G. Courbet, 1849 (*clickable)
Ear pickers. F. Millet, 1857 (*clickable)
Impressionists
The impressionists painted happy moments, snatched from the flow of everyday life.
Swing. O. Renoir, 1876 (*clickable)
Everyday genre in Russian painting
In Russian painting, the everyday genre was formed later than others. The term began to be used from the second floor. 19th century, when the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts officially recognized everyday painting, and to designate it they borrowed the French word “genre” (genre), adopted in Western European academies. Painters who created paintings based on everyday subjects began to be called genre painters.
In ancient times in Rus', works depicting events of everyday life were called "Bythean letters".
18th century gives isolated examples.
I. I. Firsov. Young painter, 1760s. (*clickable)
M. Shibanov. Peasant dinner, 1774 (*clickable)
The founder of Russian everyday painting was A.G. Venetsianov.
The labors and days of peasants appear in his canvases as an eternal celebration of unity with nature; the beauty of women is covered in the spirit of high classics: their images have the same clarity and harmony as in Greek statues.
Venetsianov A.G. Reapers, ok. 1825
Venetsianov A.G. At the harvest. Summer", 1820s.
Venetsianov A.G. Morning of the landowner, 1823
Genre motifs appear in the works of other masters of the first half. 19th century
K. P. Bryullov. Italian noon, 1827
K. P. Bryullov. Girl picking grapes near Naples, 1827
V. A. Tropinina. Lacemaker, 1823
In the paintings of P. A. Fedotov, social satire is happily merged with poetry, with admiration for the beauty of the surrounding world.
P. A. Fedotov. The Picky Bride, 1847 (*clickable)
P. A. Fedotov. Major's matchmaking, 1848 (*clickable)
P. A. Fedotov. "Aristocrat's Breakfast" 1849 State Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow
The Wanderers
The everyday genre becomes the leading one in the paintings of the Itinerants, sharpening the critical focus of Fedotov’s work. Finding acutely social, topical subjects in modern reality, they paint their pictures with ardent compassion for “little people.”
I. M. Pryanishnikov. Jokers, 1865 (*clickable)
N.V. Nevrev. Bargain. From the recent past, 1866 (*clickable)
V. E. Makovsky. Date, 1883 (*clickable)
Choral paintings
In the 1870-80s. “choral pictures” appear (V.V. Stasov’s term), in which large masses of people act.
Taking the snowy town. V. I. Surikova, 1891
Society of Easel Painters
The traditions of the everyday genre of the Itinerants continued in the 1920s. painters who were members of the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.
Masters from the Society of Easel Painters painted heroic everyday life of building a new life.
A. Deineka. Restoration of Rostselmash
Yu. Pimenov. Wedding on tomorrow's street. 1962 (*clickable)
Household painting in the second half. 20 – beginning 21st century
F. Reshetnikov. Two again. Early 1950s
Yablonskaya Tatyana Nilovna. Morning. 1954
Daughter of Soviet Kyrgyzstan, Chuikov S.A. (*clickable)
A. Plastov. Summer. 1959-1960 (*clickable)
Popkov V.E. Builders of the Bratsk hydroelectric power station. 1960-1961 (*clickable)
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