home » Foundation » Report on the picture of barge haulers on the Volga. Composition based on the painting by Repin Burlaka on the Volga (description). The cautionary nature of the picture

Report on the picture of barge haulers on the Volga. Composition based on the painting by Repin Burlaka on the Volga (description). The cautionary nature of the picture

Barge Haulers on the Volga is one of the most famous paintings by the great Russian artist Ilya Repin (1844-1930). The painting was created in the period 1870-1873. Art critics define the genre of this painting as naturalism with elements of critical realism.

Burlak is a hired worker in Russia of the 16th - early 20th centuries, who, walking along the coast (along the so-called coastline), pulled a river vessel against the current with the help of a string. In the 18th-19th centuries, barking was the main type of vessel driven by burlak labor. Burlatsky labor was seasonal. Boats pulled on "big water": in spring and autumn. To fulfill the order, the barge haulers united in artels. The work of the barge haule was extremely hard and monotonous. The speed of movement depended on the strength of the tail or head wind. With a fair wind, a sail was raised on the ship (bark), which significantly accelerated the movement. Songs helped the barge haulers maintain the pace of movement. One of the well-known burlak songs is "Eh, club, uhnem", which was usually sung to coordinate the forces of the artel in one of the most difficult moments: straightening the bark from a place after raising the anchor.

When Dostoevsky saw this painting by Ilya Repin "Barge Haulers on the Volga", he was very glad that the artist did not put any social protest into it. In the "Diary of a Writer" Fyodor Mikhailovich remarked: "... barge haulers, real barge haulers and nothing more. None of them shouts from the picture to the viewer: "Look how unhappy I am and how much you owe the people!"

The first impression of the canvas is that a group of emaciated people under the hot sun pulls a barge, overcoming the force of the current of the great Russian river. There are eleven people in the mob, and each of them pulls a strap that cuts into the chest and shoulders. From the torn clothes it becomes clear that only extreme poverty can push a person to such work. Some barge haulers have shirts so shabby that the strap simply rubbed them through. However, people stubbornly continue to drag the ship by the rope.

If you look closely at the characters separately, you can see that everyone has their own character. Someone completely submitted to a difficult fate, someone is philosophically calm, as they understand that the season will end, and with it - and hard work. But after that the family will no longer need it.

The composition of the picture is built as if the barge haulers are walking towards the viewer. However, the people pulling the strap do not close each other, so you can see that one of the characters lights a cigarette while the rest take on the entire load. Nevertheless, all the members of the mob are calm, apparently due to great fatigue. They will react to a friend with the understanding that he now needs a little rest.

The central character walks competently. This is an elderly barge haule, apparently - the head of the gang. He already knows exactly how to calculate the forces, so he steps evenly. Despite the heat, he is wearing tight clothes, as he knows that a light shirt will quickly fray at such a job. His gaze reflected both fatigue, and even some despair, but at the same time - the realization that the road will still be mastered by the one walking.

The then publicist Alexei Suvorin responded with numerous criticism of Repin's work. Despite this, many colleagues and people of that time took the picture enthusiastically, for example, Kramskoy and Stasov. Nevertheless, only a bronze medal was awarded to the painting at the world exhibition. The canvas was very much liked by the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, who bought it for three thousand rubles.

The main canvas measures 131.5 cm by 281 cm, the painting is in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, the smaller canvas "Barge Haulers Wading", 1872 size 62 cm by 97 cm is in the Tretyakov Gallery.

1. Shoreline

Trampled coastal strip along which barge haulers walked. Emperor Paul forbade the construction of fences and buildings here, but he limited himself to this. Neither bushes, nor stones, nor swampy places were removed from the path of the barge haulers, so the place written by Repin can be considered an ideal section of the road.

2. Bump - foreman of the barge haulers

They became a clever, strong and experienced person who knew many songs. In the artel, which Repin captured, the bump was pop-defrocked Kanin (sketches have been preserved, where the artist indicated the names of some of the characters). The brigadier rode, that is, he fastened his strap, in front of everyone and set the rhythm of the movement. The barge haulers did each step synchronously with the right leg, then pulling up the left. From this, the whole artel swayed on the move. If someone lost a step, people collided with their shoulders, and the bump gave the command "hay - straw", resuming movement in the leg. Keeping the rhythm on the narrow paths above the cliffs required great skill from the foreman.


3. Podshishelnye - the closest helpers of the lump, hovering to the right and left of him. To the left of Kanin is Ilka the Sailor, an artisan headman who bought provisions and gave out their salaries to the barge haulers. At the time of Repin, it was 30 kopecks a day. So much, for example, it cost to cross all of Moscow in a cab, driving from Znamenka to Lefortovo (not so little - all of Moscow in a cab, that is, a taxi). Behind the backs of the lumpy were those in need of special control.


4. "Bonded", like a man with a pipe, even at the beginning of the journey, managed to squander the salary for the entire voyage. In debt to the artel, they worked for the grub and did not really try.

5. The youngest of the barge haulers, the village boy Larka, was the cook and the falcon headman (that is, responsible for the cleanliness of the latrine on the ship). Considering his duties more than sufficient, Larka sometimes scandalized and demonstratively refused to pull the strap.

6. "Scammers"

In every artel, there were simply careless ones.burdens on the shoulders of others

.

7. "Overseer"

Behind were the most conscientious barge haulers, urging the hackers.

8. Oblique or oblique

Sluggish or inert - that was the name of the barge haule, who closed the movement. He made sure that the rope did not cling to the stones and bushes on the shore. The inert one usually looked at his feet and roamed himself apart in order to be able to walk in his own rhythm. Experienced, but sick or weak were chosen for inertia.


9-10. Bark and flag

View of the barge. They carried Elton salt, Caspian fish and seal fat, Ural iron and Persian goods (cotton, silk, rice, dried fruits) up the Volga. The artel was recruited by the weight of a laden vessel at the rate of about 250 poods per person. The cargo being pulled up the river 11 barge haulers, weighing at least 40 tons. The order of the stripes on the flag was not treated too carefully, and sometimes they were lifted upside down, as here.


11 and 13. Pilot and water-carrier

The pilot is the man at the helm, in fact the captain of the ship. He earns more than the entire artel put together, gives instructions to the barge haulers and maneuvers both the steering wheel and the blocks that regulate the length of the cord. Now the bark is making a turn, avoiding the shallow.

Vodoliv is a carpenter who caulks and repairs the ship, monitors the safety of the goods, bears financial responsibility for it during loading and unloading. According to the agreement, he does not have the right to leave the embroidery during the voyage and replaces the owner, leading on his behalf.

12. Becheva - the rope to which the barge haulers are tempted. While the barge was being driven along the steep slope, that is, at the very shore, the line was etched by about 30 meters. But the pilot loosened it, the bark was moving away from the shore. In a minute, the rope will stretch like a string and the barge haulers will first have to restrain the inertia of the vessel, and then pull with all their might. At this moment, the bump will tighten the song: “Let's go and take it, / Right-left interceded. / Oh, again, again, / One more time, one more time ... "and so on, until the artel enters into a rhythm and moves forward.

14. The sail lifted with a favorable wind, then the ship went much easier and faster. Now the sail is removed, and the wind is head-on, so it is harder for the barge haulers to go and they cannot make a wide stride.

15. Bark thread

Since the 16th century, it was customary to decorate the Volga barks with intricate carvings. It was believed that she helped the ship to rise against the current. The best specialists in clumsy work in the country were engaged in barking. When in the 1870s steamers pushed wooden barges from the river, the craftsmen scattered in search of earnings, and a thirty-year era of magnificent carved platbands began in the wooden architecture of Central Russia. Later, highly skilled carving gave way to more primitive stencil sawing.

In Western Europe (for example, in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, as well as in Italy), the movement of river vessels with the help of manpower and draft animals continued until the thirties of the XX century. But in Germany, the use of manpower ceased already in the second half of the 19th century. There were also women's artels.

Ilya Repin. Barge Haulers on the Volga. 1870-1873 State Russian Museum.

“Mastery is such that one cannot even see mastery” Lev Tolstoy (about Ilya Repin).

Repin (1844-1930) wrote “Burlakov” when he was not yet 30. He has a long and fruitful life ahead of him. Masterpieces "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan", "They did not expect" or "Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish sultan."

But "Barge Haulers" will always be his first and main masterpiece. Remembering Repin, we remember this very picture. The pinnacle of his creativity was reached at the very beginning of the path.

The picture has always been popular. And during the life of the artist. And even more so in Soviet times. She was everywhere. In textbooks, on calendars, stamps and postcards.

When a painting is too popular, there is an illusion of familiarity with it. Therefore, few people have a desire to learn more about her.

But since you are reading this article, then you have overcome this barrier. Therefore, I will be happy to look at the picture closer with you.

Were there barge haulers in painting before Repin

In European painting, Repin was not the first to turn to the topic of barge haulers.

And there was also an option “Barge Haulers going through the windbreak”. But Repin destroyed it. It was rejected by Ivan Shishkin, pointing out to Repin the incorrectly depicted trees.

Repin created countless sketches and drawings for 5 years of work.

Ilya Repin. Sketch for the painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga". 1870 State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. Istpravda.ru

Topicality of "Burlakov"

So, Repin refused to be straightforward. And the ruddy summer residents did not write next to the barge haulers.

But this did not help Repin. He has built a reputation for himself as an artist who writes about the hard work of the oppressed. And the public expected such works from him in the future.

But Repin in every possible way denied the role of the “artist of the oppressed”. Later I tried not to return to such topics.

He even directly admitted that while talking with the barge haulers, he listened half-ear to their complaints about their plight. He was only interested in their faces and postures.

But what to do, Repin himself is “to blame”. A steamer wrote in the distance as the embodiment of progress. It can be read unambiguously: there is something to use as a tug, but people are still tortured.

And the barge haulers themselves are too shabby. They are not wearing clothes, but rags the color of sweat and dirt. Remember how clean and neat the barge haulers are in Italy.

To top it off, Repin showed his barge haulers against the backdrop of an idyllic landscape. Late spring, bright sky, beige sand, cloudless sky. Against this background, the frailty of these poor fellows looks even more defiant.

In fact, Repin did not exaggerate here. Tramps and homeless people often went to the barge haulers. Sometimes peasants after lean years, that is, in dire need. After all, the work was hard, but helped to live in the off-season (summer and winter), not thinking about hunger.

In Soviet times, the painting "Barge Haulers" also began to be perceived as a symbol of the oppression of the people by the "accursed" bourgeoisie. That is why the Soviet government so wanted Repin to return from exile. Considering it a harbinger of "correct" painting, that is, socialist realism.

Who posed for Repin for "Burlakov"

The barge haulers depicted are real people. Repin knew all of them personally, invited them to talks.

The artist lamented that many came to pose, having washed and cut their hair. Which did not correspond to the artist's idea.

But then Kanin came (the most forward in the harness). A man of 45 years old. He did not specially prepare for a meeting with the artist. I didn't go to the bathhouse, didn't put on a festive shirt. Repin immediately realized that he would be among his "barge haulers".

Kanin once sang in a church choir. He was stripped of his hair, that is, stripped of his ecclesiastical dignity. And for 10 years now it has been pulling the strap. In the artel barge haulers "built a career." Thanks to his intelligence and perseverance, he became the leader of the team, the "bump". He knows the coastline best of all. He sets the pace for the whole group.

He reminded Repin of a Greek philosopher who was enslaved by the Romans. A man of remarkable mind performs the most difficult and primitive work, albeit as a headman.

To the right of Kanin is a Nizhny Novgorod fighter. In winter, he earns by participating in fist fights. And in the spring and autumn "pulls the strap." He is not more than 40 years old, he still has enough physical strength. He is put in the first team, as one of the strongest and most conscientious.

To the left of Kanin is the sailor Ilka. He knows how to work hard and hard, so he is also in the front row. But it is clear that he is a gloomy person. He alone pierces us with an unkind look. Such an easily swearing and sending away.

Behind the first three is a man with a pipe. He is dressed the most decently of all. His shirt is not rags, like those of his comrades. He is wearing a real hat, not a tied rag.

Most likely, he is from the peasants. Who has a wife or mother at home. Which watch over his clothes. He is clearly lazy: he walks straight, not pulling the strap tightly. Moreover, he manages to smoke a pipe.

He is followed by a man of about 60. He is emaciated, desperately wiping sweat from his forehead with his sleeve. Most likely, he is sick with consumption, and this is his last turbulent season.

Ilya Repin. Detail "Burlakov on the Volga". 1873 State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Especially striking is the young village boy Larka. Apparently the family sent him to earn extra money. Maybe he could not get along with his father, he left home. He tries to feed himself. Obviously, this is almost the first time he pulls the strap. Which he just can't get used to.

Behind him, on the contrary, is a very experienced barge haule. A strong old man, without weakening his strength, still manages to hammer a pouch.

Between them is a barge haule, which is seen worse than others. It can only be seen that this is a Kalmyk.

Ilya Repin. Fragment of the painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga". 1873, St. Petersburg

Retired soldier Zotov follows the old man with a pouch. He is wearing everything that remains of his uniform: a cap and a jacket, though already sleeveless.

Behind him is a man who looks like a Greek in dress and characteristic nose.

The last person is the person with the most depressing appearance. It seems that he will now fall exhausted. His hands are limp. The head fell so low on the chest that the face was not visible. He most likely evokes the deepest pity in you.

The last to be put in the “team” were the experienced, but the weak or the sick. They walked a little apart, in their own rhythm and looked at their feet. Since their function was to ensure that the rope does not touch the stones. So his drooping posture and lagging behind the others does not mean that he is bad.

Summarize

“Barge Haulers on the Volga” is a cult Repin. But not everyone knows why. This is a hard-won masterpiece: 5 years of preparation, hundreds of sketches and drawings, close communication with barge haulers, alteration of the picture.

Repin was not the first to raise the topic of barge haulers. But his "Barge Haulers" are the most famous.

“Barge Haulers” are more interesting not for their topicality, but for their characters. Each of them has its own “easy to read” character.

In contact with

On the river bank, harnessed, haulers pull the ship. Repin's canvas, which, it seems, is even in school history textbooks, reproduces the image of a ragged beggar who can’t earn his living otherwise than by hellish labor. Repin also throws firewood into the social fire: a symbol of progress can be seen on the horizon - a tug that could replace the haulers and alleviate his fate, but for some reason is not used.

The mob is headed by a troika of "root people": in the center is a barge haule Kanin, who resembles a philosopher Repin, a bearded man who personifies primitive strength, and an embittered "Ilka-sailor". Behind them - the rest, among whom stand out a tall, phlegmatic old man filling a pipe, a young man Larka, as if trying to free himself from a strap, a black-haired "Grek" who, as if calling out to a barge haule, ready to collapse on the sand.

The characters are written out so emotionally and vividly that this story is readily believed. However, do not rush to judge by one picture of the whole phenomenon in the economy of tsarist Russia. The fact is that the process of the barge haule was different.

Women-barge haulers, 1900s. (wikimedia.org)

There was a large drum on the barges, on which a cable was wound with three anchors attached to it. The movement began with the fact that people got into a boat, took with them a rope with anchors and floated upstream. Anchors were thrown along the way. The barge haulers on the barge clung to the cable with their ropes and walked from the bow to the stern, choosing the cable, and there, at the stern, they wound it on a drum. It turned out that they walked backward, and the deck under their feet passed forward. Then they again ran to the bow of the barge, and all this was repeated. This is how the barge sailed upstream to the first anchor, which was then raised, then to the second and third. What Repin described happened if the pilot ran the barge aground. Such work was paid separately.

As for money and grub, the barge haule was far from being as poor as the artist showed. They worked as cooperatives and before the beginning of the shipping season they agreed on food. On the day they were given bread, meat, butter, sugar, salt, tea, tobacco, cereals. We always slept after dinner. And a good barge haulers earned so much money during the summer season that he could do nothing in the winter. Hundreds of thousands of people were employed in the burlak trade. They went there in the overwhelming majority of cases voluntarily, as to waste work.


"Barge Haulers on the Volga" by Repin. (wikimedia.org)

Context

Barge Haulers on the Volga is an early work by Repin. He was not even 30 years old when the canvas was completed. At that time, the artist was a student at the Academy and wrote mainly on biblical subjects. Repin turned to realism, it seems, unexpectedly for himself. And it was like this. In the late 1860s, he and his fellow students went to study sketches in Ust-Izhora (a village not far from St. Petersburg). The embankment, gentlemen are walking, everything is decorous - noble. And suddenly the impressionable Repin noticed a band of barge haulers.

“Oh God, why are they so dirty, ragged! - exclaimed the artist. - ... The faces are sullen, sometimes only a heavy gaze flashes from under a strand of loose hanging hair, their sweaty faces shine, and their shirts are completely darkened. This is a contrast to this pure, fragrant flower garden of the gentlemen. "

During that trip, Repin made a sketch of the painting, the plot of which was based on the contrast of barge haulers and summer residents. The composition was criticized by the artist's friend Fyodor Vasiliev, calling it artificial and rational. It was he who advised Repin to go to the Volga and finalize the plot, and at the same time helped with the money - the painter himself was extremely strapped for money.

Repin settled in the Samara region for the whole summer, got to know the locals, asked about life. “I must admit frankly that I was not in the least interested in the question of everyday life and the social structure of agreements between barge haulers and their owners; I asked them only to give some seriousness to my business. To tell the truth, I even absentmindedly listened to some story or detail about their relationship to the owners and these bloodsucking boys. "


Repin, self-portrait, 1878. (wikimedia.org)

Much more the artist was carried away by the very image of the barge haule: “This one, with which I caught up and walk in step, - here is a story, here is a novel! All the novels and all the stories are in front of this figure! God, how marvelously his head is tied with a rag, how his hair curled up to his neck, and most importantly - the color of his face! " This is how Repin described Kanin - a barge haule, a cut-off priest, whom he met on the Volga. The artist considered it "the pinnacle of the burlak epic."

The public saw the painting in 1873 in St. Petersburg at an art exhibition of paintings and sculptures intended to be sent to Vienna for the World Exhibition. Reviews have been conflicting.

Dostoevsky, for example, wrote: “One cannot but love them, these defenseless, one cannot leave without loving them. It is impossible not to think that he must, really owe the people ... After all, this burlak "party" will dream later in a dream, fifteen years later it will be remembered! But if they weren’t so natural, innocent and simple, they wouldn’t make an impression and would not make such a picture. ” Repin was praised by Kramskoy, Stasov, and all those who later became the Itinerants.

Academic circles called the painting "the greatest profanation of art", "the sober truth of miserable reality." Some of the journalists saw on the canvas "various civic motives and skinny ideas, transferred to the canvas from newspaper articles ... from which the realists get their inspiration."

After Petersburg, the painting went to Vienna. There she was also greeted by some with delight, others with bewilderment. “Well, tell me, for God's sake, what was the hard thing that pulled you to paint this picture? You must be a Pole? .. Well, shame on you - Russian! But I have already reduced this antediluvian mode of transport to zero, and soon there will be no mention of it. And you paint a picture, take it to the World Exhibition in Vienna and, I think, dream of finding some foolish rich man who will acquire these gorillas, our bast shoes, ”said one of the ministers.

And yet the canvas found a buyer. It became the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, because of which the canvas turned out to be closed to the general public, which could only see it at exhibitions.

The fate of the artist

Repin's life was long and eventful. Beginning with Barge Haulers on the Volga, they started talking about the artist as a new phenomenon in art. Over time, he became one of the most popular portrait painters. Even those who never agreed to anyone's proposal posed for him.

Repin wrote out each of his paintings thoroughly, it took several years to work. He captivated both family and friends with the idea. They all looked for costumes, posed, literally lived by the plot. The artist's eldest daughter Vera recalled that when Repin was working on the painting "The Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan", for a long time the whole family lived only with the Cossacks: Ilya Efimovich read aloud poems and stories about the Sich every night, the children knew all the heroes by heart, played Taras Bulba, Ostap and Andriy, sculpted their figures from clay and could at any time quote a piece of text from a letter from the Cossacks to the Sultan.


"The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan", 1891. (wikimedia.org)

And when Repin worked on the painting "The ruler Princess Sofia Alekseevna a year after her imprisonment in the Novodevichy Convent during the execution of the archers and the torture of all her servants in 1698", he even lived not far from the monastery. Meanwhile, Repin's first wife Vera Alekseevna sewed a dress with her own hands according to sketches brought from the Armory.

There are many mystical stories around Repin's personality. And about how his paintings influenced people, and how many sitters soon died not by their own death, and how Ilya Efimovich communicated with sorcerers. It is, of course, impossible to confirm or refute them. But they add a special flavor to the history of the master of realism.

Barge Haulers on the Volga

"Barge Haulers on the Volga" is the most popular creation of the author, famous for its deep and sad meaning, which each person sees, even in one direction, but in his own way.

The painting depicts workers performing their professional duties. It would seem that there is nothing sad about what has been described, but the position of barge haulers in itself is extremely difficult, and in its appearance from the outside equates people with machines or even with animals. Repin's painting is painted in pastel colors, and human silhouettes have fuzzy boundaries and, as it were, blurred, which also adds an oppressive atmosphere to the work.

The author was well acquainted with the barge haulers, namely - the canvas in its finished form was born three years after the author studied the intricacies of this profession, and therefore he managed to convey in detail the state of people, relying not only on his own imagination.

The impression of the picture makes one think that a sane person could choose the profession depicted only out of sheer poverty and despair. The scorching sun, reflected from the water and thus creating a real steam room, torn clothes from the rope digging into the body, philosophical calm bordering on despair ...

All this is unimaginably difficult to endure, which is why respect for the participants in what is happening in the picture involuntarily appears. Each of those depicted, despite the general physical condition full of local fatigue, has its own character. Someone has already completely surrendered to almost dying despondency, someone continues to seem fiercely directed into the distance. Among all, one character stands out especially strongly, lighting a cigarette and looking the most calm against the background of the rest.

It may seem to some that the author wanted to portray selfishness, but if you take into account the loyalty of the rest of the workers, you can come to a different conclusion. None of the barge haulers is trying to interfere with the smoker - the participants in the torture continue to stubbornly overcome the river current and drag the ship behind them, understanding and resigning themselves to the fact that a man needs a little time for a break.

It should be said that Repin's painting "Barge Haulers on the Volga" is really worthy of international discussion. Creation allows anyone looking at it to develop internally, analyze and compose their own understanding of what is happening, remember the history of all kinds of countries and just sincerely, humanly regret.

Option 2

The painting depicts a wide Volga river and a yellow bank, and a detachment of barge haulers on the bank. They are pulling a merchant ship. The barge itself is huge, and the sun is unbearably scorching. There is a huge cargo on the barge itself, and the flag hangs upside down on it. The strong current of the river complicates the work of the barge haulers. The figures of people are well drawn. We seem to find ourselves in this world.

We see that the heroes of this picture are tired and emaciated, trying with great difficulty to position the barge to the shore. The group employs 11 people and they are all of different ages. They walk forward synchronously: step with the right foot, then pull up the left. They are wearing dirty tattered shirts, worn out by a burlak strap to holes, worn-out trousers and worn-out yellow bast shoes. Straps on the shoulder of the barge haulers to make it easier to carry the barge. Dangling arms along the body because the arms will not work well. The body needs to lean on a wide strap and step over with strong legs. Each member of the group should work at full strength, not shift their colleagues onto the shoulders of others.

Judging by their appearance and hard work, the barge haulers work for little money. Extreme poverty and unbearable labor are written on their tired faces. But people did not look like forced slaves. They didn't look like pathetic workers. Everyone needs to feed their families so they don't starve to death.

We see in the picture that each barge haulers have their own character. Someone behaves with restraint and calm, someone resigned to their fate, and someone is waiting for the end of the working season.

In the picture, a group of workers are walking towards the viewer. One barge haule from the crowd of workers lights up a cigarette, while others continue to pull. A young barge haulers from fatigue cannot put on a shoulder strap. Maybe he's too stubborn in nature. An elderly barge haule is an experienced worker, knows his hard business well and distributes his forces correctly. On his face, we see extreme despair and fatigue. He will bring his comrades forward. And behind the barge haule we, as he looks at his feet and makes sure that the rope does not cling to the bushes. On a boat, the pilot tries to steer in order to adjust the length of the rope. The waterman monitors the goods, as he is responsible for the safety.



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