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Alexander Deineka
‘Mother‘
mother and child, given in
close-up, is softly yet impressively
outlined against
the even, muted color
of the background. The
golden hues of the image
are restrained, yet warm.
The proud strength of the
mother and the gentleness
with which she is carrying
the sleeping child are rendered
by the simple means
of accentuating the plastic-
ity of her body. The human appeal of the image and the eloquent
laconism of the painting are features of genuine monumentality.
Alexander Deineka
‘Defence of Sevastopol‘
With Deineka as with other Soviet artists, the theme of the Great
Patriotic War on Russian territory eliminated all other interests in
the art world. I’d like to remind the reader that the war was happening
on the territory of the Soviet Union and the country lost
an overwhelming number of people, namely twenty million. You
will hardly fi nd a single family in Russia that did not lose somebody
during the War.
For his picture ‘On the Outskirts of Moscow. November 1941’
Deineka chooses a foreshortening method unusual for a street
scene, with a fragmentary composition, pulsating with discordant,
alarming rhythms. The harsh color scheme is of cold steelgrey
and rusty hues and Deineka sharply outlines the houses
along the road along with the ruins, and the solitary military lorry
with the tarpaulin cover fl apping in the wind. The pointed contrasts
of the fl at surfaces and the bulk of the objects, the different
scale on which the various elements of the painting are drawn,
are a means of bringing
attention to the
antitank concrete
traps and the hedgehogs
that seem to
thrust up from the
snow in a bristling
paling to protect the
city. The image of
Moscow, prepared
to repel the attack of
the enemy and full
of a grim strength,
expresses the tense
atmosphere of the
time with the potency
of a wartime
poster.
Sergei Gerasimov
10
Art History
One of the best pictures by Arkadi Plastov (1893-1972) is called
‘A Nazi Plane Has Flown Over’ (1942). The peaceful beauty of the
Russian land, and the stillness and enchantment of autumn have
been brutally violated by the enemy. A small dog is howling beside
the body of a shepherd boy machine-gunned to death by
Arkadi Plastov
‘A Nazi Plane Has Flown Over’
the Nazi plane that has just fl own over. The image throbs with
pain and hatred for the enemy. Plastov’s painting was shown for
the fi rst time at the Great Patriotic War exhibition mounted in the
halls of the Tretyakov Gallery in November 1942. In 1943, an All-
Union exhibition keynoted as ‘Heroism at the Front and in the
Rear’ was also held at the Tretyakov Gallery, and here people saw
for the fi rst time ‘The Mother of a Partisan’ (1943) by Sergei Gerasimov
(1885-1964). The artist counter poses the spiritual grandeur
of the ordinary Russian peasant woman against the brutal
strength of the German Nazi, shown against the burning home
Sergei Gerasimov
‘In Vologda’
which he has ordered to be set on fi re. The painting dramatically
extols the heroism of Soviet people unconquered by the enemy.
The contribution to the large portrait gallery devoted to the heroes
of the Great Patriotic War came from Soviet painters, graphic
artists and sculptors, many of whom served in the Armed Forces
and fought at the fronts. The sculptural portrait of Army General
Chernyakhovsky, twice a Hero of the Soviet Union, was posthumously
made in 1945 by Yevgeny Vetetich (1908-1975). The sculptor
did more than give the portrait a perfect likeness; he created
a dramatic, solemnly decorative composition affi rming the hero’s
strength of character and courage.
2007
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