The bright sunshine and ringing tones of this work reflect the feelings of joy and relief experienced by the Soviet people following victory in the Second World War. The painting is an image of the Russian motherland addressing peaceful labour against an endless space and enormous sky. The peasants stride across the field in free and rhythmic movements. Their figures look monumental against the sky. The tragedy of war and the icy of peace were two interlocking themes in the oeuvre of an artist who wrote: “After mourning my comrades in Vow of the Baltic Sailors I painted In Peaceful Fields. From that time onwards, wittingly or unwittingly, I conveyed lightness and darkness.”

Mylnikov Andrei

Mylnikov, Andrei Andreevich (1919, Pokrovsk — 2012, St Petersburg)
Painter, graphic artist, monumentalist. Studied architecture (1937–1940) and painting (1940–1946) at the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Contributed to exhibitions (from 1946). Taught at the Ilya Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (from 1947), headed the studio of monumental painting (from 1953). Professor (1957). Full member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1966). People’s Artist of the USSR (1976). Winner of the Stalin Prize for "On Peaceful Fields" (1951). Awarded a silver medal by the Ministry of Culture of the USSR for "Awakening" (1958).