Sleeping children, Perov, 1870 
- Author: Vasily Grigoryevich Perov
- Museum: Tretyakov Gallery
- Year: 1870
Overview of the painting :
Sleeping children – Perov. 1870. Oil on canvas. 53×61
No task for the artist is more difficult than writing children. The author chose the most suitable situation – a deep sleep. This allowed the master to do the work with extraordinary thoroughness, scrupulousness and extraordinary love.
Sunlight, leaking through the slots of the walls of the old barn, illuminates two children sleeping on straw. In this seemingly normal situation, the author managed to find many nuances and subtleties that cause the viewer many of the most positive emotions. A complex angle, a play of light and shadow, noticed details – everything fills the work with touching tenderness.
Baby legs, unusual for shoes, simple beads on the girl’s neck, poor clothes, a horn that harbors a boy – these details will tell much more about heroes than dozens of pages of text.
One cannot fail to notice the tenderness with which the author himself belongs to his heroes. He frankly admires children, paying close attention to the slightest details, light, texture. The painting received enthusiastic reviews from critics, was appreciated by Russian painting enthusiasts, and also became the decoration of foreign exhibitions of Russian art.