“Map house”, Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova – overview of the painting 
- Posted by Zinaida Serebryakova
- Museum: Russian Museum
- Year: 1919
Overview of the painting :
Card house – Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova. Oil on canvas. 65 x 75.5 cm
The magnificent artistic masterpiece “Map House” created Z.E. Serebryakova! It is written in the Art Nouveau style, with a plot of the genre scene.
On the canvas are four children Z.E. Serebryakova, who are building a house of cards on the table. Children look thin, exhausted and tired. The October Revolution of 1919 left a stern imprint on their identities. Zinaida Evgenievna wrote this work in difficult times when she lost her beloved spouse, her family estate and was left without a livelihood with an elderly mother and four children in her arms. And only a deep faith in God gave her the strength to survive and survive for the bright future of her children. A difficult, full of deprivation and suffering life did not break it. She found the strength to continue working and living. Creativity saved her.
After the calamities and devastation of the October Revolution of 1917, she found work at the Archaeological Institute of. Kharkov, where she made sketches of museum exhibits. Life went through poverty and poverty, and the past shattered like a house of cards. This idea of life prompted her to create a canvas.
The children grew up and lost a lot of weight. Tanya is thin, exhausted by hunger, quiet and humble, lays cards on the table. Katya with wide open eyes watches what is happening. She is seriously experiencing the post-war situation, helplessness and despair are visible in her eyes. The boys are motionless. They are no longer interested in noisy games. They do not play a roller and a ball, do not run race, do not frolic with each other. They have no twinkle and past enthusiasm!
There is a vase with beads on the table. Katya brought flowers from the field. Nearby lies a disheveled doll. No one plays these toys, as in childhood. Everything is now different.
Zinaida Serebryakova used bright and saturated dark colors in artwork. They convey the depth of hidden childhood experiences. Children look at the card building with fear, thinking that it can collapse from any touch or breeze as well as their happy, past life went into oblivion.
It is interesting to contemplate a picture, to reflect in solitude about the eternal. It carries warmth, warming others with divine light. Work develops imagination, imagination, strengthens memory and attention. It can be used to treat anxiety and fears. The art work will look great in the home interior of the living room, bedroom, work room.