Drowned, Vasily Perov, 1867 
- Author: Vasily Grigoryevich Perov
- Museum: Tretyakov Gallery
- Year: 1867
Overview of the painting :
Drowned – Vasily Perov. 1867. Oil on canvas. 68×106
The tragedy of a ruined young life – this is how you can designate the plot of the picture. The masters indignant the indifference and indifference embodied in the figure of the smoking gendarme. The artist sincerely worries the death of a young girl.
The background of the work is the panorama of the Moscow Kremlin in the morning fog. The sun is about to rise. Birds woke up, the water on the river is quiet, almost motionless.
The picture is full of details revealing the tragedy of the plot. Here, a scrap of rope, hog, wooden bridges of marina, an old boat – all creates an atmosphere of hopelessness, despondency, longing. Black clothes of the heroine, wet hair on the bare pavement, as well as the miniature handle of the drowned man make the audience’s heart shrink from pity.
The artist makes the viewer think about the cause of what happened and feel his involvement in the tragedy. The audience sympathizes with the deceased and is indignant at the indifference of the gendarme, and the approaching flock of ravens looks ominous.
The color of the work is amazingly reliable. The author managed to convey all the colors of the early morning, the freshness of autumn. What further shades the tragedy of the plot. It is known that the main character of the work had a prototype – a model girl, walking in combination. Whether the prototype of the depicted gendarme was unknown, but the artist managed to convey the type accurately and very convincingly. An ordinary, unremarkable event for a big city, in the eyes of the author rises to the level of high tragedy.