Russian Museum
Augmented Reality

Annotation

This painting reflects both the real events of the siege of Petrograd by the forces of the White general Yudenich and the artist’s own personal memoirs: “I wanted to tell the tale of an episode from the terrible year of 1919.” The artist conveys the setting of a worker’s house and the state of its inhabitants, who stay up throughout the whole alarming night. The colour contrasts add tension to the painting.
The artist employs the resolution to introduce significance into the genre scene, confirming without external pathos the stoicness of people when the hour of testing comes around: “I wanted … to convey the alarm of the historical scale of great experiences … I succeeded in loving the people depicted there.”

Author's Biography

Petrov-Vodkin Kuzma

Petrov-Vodkin, Kuzma Sergeyevich
1878, Khvalynsk (Saratov Province) -1939, Leningrad
Painter, graphic artist, writer on art, history painter, portraitist. Studied at the Baron Stieglitz Central School of Technical Drawing (1895-97), under Abram Arkhipov and Valentin Serov at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1897-1904), at Anton Aube''s school in Munich (1901) and private academies in Paris. Contributed to exhibitions (from 1898). Contributed to the Salon d''Automne (1906-07, 1908), Sergei Makovsky Salon (1909), Union of Russian Artists (1909, 1910), Golden Fleece (1909), Union of Youth (1910), World of Art (191124), Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition (1912), First Free Exhibition of Works of Art (1919), Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (1923, 1928), Four Arts (1925-29), World Exhibition in Brussels (1910) and the International Exhibitions in Rome (1911), Malmo (1914) and Venice (1924, 1928). Taught at the Elizaveta Zvantseva School of Painting and Drawing in St Petersburg (1910-15) and the Free Art Studios/Academy of Arts (1918-38). Honoured Artist of Russia (1930).