“Grandfather and granddaughters”, Vasily Grigoryevich Perov – overview of the painting 
- Author: Vasily Grigoryevich Perov
- Museum: State Museum of Art of Uzbekistan
- Year: 1871
Overview of the painting :
“Grandfather and granddaughter” – Vasily Grigoryevich Perov. Oil on canvas. 78 x 62 cm
The critical and satirical look of the artist Vasily Perov can be traced in many of his works. He is known for his work on the life and life of a simple people, about their oppressed and disenfranchised position in society, about unhappy children, poor old people, about humiliated and insulted.
Vasily Perov’s painting about grandfather and grandson is also realistic, but considering it, the viewer does not have a sense of longing and hopelessness, because it is filled with love.
In the remote corner of the poor hut, all the simple but important and necessary peasant utensils are collected. Clay jugs and jugs, sieve, cast iron and baskets. In the lower right part of the canvas – a hand mill – mill, without it it is impossible in the household.
On the ropes stretched along the wall, miserable clothes dry. On the hook, driven into the ceiling, a cradle is suspended. The whole situation speaks of the need for people living here.
Here is the main character sitting on a roughly bundled bench. Stepped, with a pathetic and gray-haired beard, an old man in a lata shirt and trampled bast shoes. Granddaughter leaned to him to no avail – a nimble little boy with mischievous eyes and a hat of wavy Russian curls.
He framed his grandfather’s vihrash head, and he combes the naughty hair with wooden crests. For such an important matter, they both set aside their daily activities.
What calm and love the whole composition breathes, both heroes are full of family warmth and spiritual peace. They are so good and comfortable together, they are happy with this moment, right here and now. And it doesn’t matter what decoration is around if there is a soul mate nearby.
The gamma of colors used by the painter is not large and not saturated. But they are a tag with a mass of halftones and transitions that give the greatest realism to the canvas.
This work of Vasily Perov, like many others, undoubtedly left a mark on the history of Russian painting. Because he not only brilliantly owns the brush, but he is also an artist who is sensitive and subtle to social phenomena, understands the psychology of man and knows how to show this at the highest aesthetic level in his paintings.
His work had a huge impact on society and progressive people of the 19th century. The artist himself always sought to ensure that his work was closer to the people, was intelligible and understandable to everyone. Therefore, his visual language has survived the time and so far the audience is watching, studying the paintings of Perov, sympathizing and understanding the heroes of his stories.