“Krestyan with a bridle”, Kram – overview of the painting 
- Posted by Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskaya
- Museum: Museum of Russian Art, Kiev
- Year: 1883
Overview of the painting :
Peasant with a bridle. Mina Moiseev – Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskaya. 1883. Oil on canvas. 125 x 93
The creative heritage of Ivan Kramsky includes many portraits of prominent scientists, statesmen, members of the royal family, and, of course, relatives. A separate page of creativity is portraits of ordinary people, peasants, distinguished by expressiveness and content.
Before us is Mina Moiseev, a peasant. A person of simple origin, however, appears before us in a magnificent and noble form. As in other portraits, Kramskoy sought to capture precisely the personality, and not the averaged archetype.
Mina holds a bridle in her hands, and his tense sine brushes are so beautifully written out that involuntarily the look stops on this element. The grandeur of the image is emphasized by both clothes and the figure – the Armenian falls from beautiful wide shoulders with beautiful direct folds.
The face of the old man is wisdom, life experience, clarity and common sense. Beard and bush eyebrows caused discussions of critics who often compared the portrait hero to Leo Tolstoy. The same become, wisdom and peace.
The portrait is admirable, since it clearly traces not only the special author’s style, technique, but also the moral side of Ivan Kramsky – respect for the simple peasant, for his work, sympathy for his difficult life.
It should be noted that the first portrait of Mina Moiseev Kramskaya was written in 1882.