The painting “Everything in the past”, artist V. M. Maximov – overview 
- Posted by Vasily Maksimovich Maximov
- Museum: Tretyakov Gallery
- Year: 1889
Overview of the painting :
Everything in the past is Vasily Maksimovich Maximov. Oil on canvas. 72 x 93.5 cm
According to the paintings of the painter Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov, one can get an idea of the life and life of the Russian village of the 19th century. The heroes of all his works are simple peasants with their traditions and customs.
But the picture “Everything in the past” is somewhat knocked out of the general gallery of the peasant genre. It was written in 1889, but the first thoughts about its creation appeared in 1885, when Maximov inherited from his mother-in-law a estate in the village of Lyubsha, Novoladozhsky district.
By 1888, sketches and sketches began to form into the future picture. For the old lady, he was posed by a relative, the wife of Brother Alexei – Varvara. On the canvas, two women who have lived the bulk of their lives and now, on a slope of years, quietly and peacefully rest, basking in the rays of the spring sun.
The fact that this is exactly spring day is said by a bright, blooming, magnificent bush of lilacs near the wall of a simple log house. A garden launched with dry trees and once a luxurious bar house, and now old with boarded windows. He also outlived his own, as did his former mistress.
Now she is sitting in a chair, clothed with pillows and either doze off or remember the past. A woman is dressed, as befits a lady, in a silk dress, in a velvet cloak, shaded by fur. There’s a powdered bow wig on my head. Probably such was worn during the years of her youth. In a limp lowered arm, it will break. Near the chair there is a cane and a faithful dog. The whole kind of landowner speaks of traces of past barge, power, wealth.
The second character is an ordinary peasant woman, possibly a former servant, shorting her age with a lady. Of course, her clothes are straightforward – a sitz skirt, a checkered apron, a simple blouse, a dark handkerchief on her head, knitting in her hands.
They just drank tea. On the table, covered with beautiful tablecloth, a graceful cup with gilded, something from food in a plate covered with a white napkin, a sugar bowl, is served for the lady. Near the steps there is a large brilliant samovar and a large mug for a partner. Each is busy with his thoughts, although the artist portrayed them together, but they do not have common topics for conversation.
The mistress has something to remember, and she, leaning back in her chair, indulged in dreams. And the maid, as usual, has thoughts about the urgent – to prepare a meal, to ventilate blankets and clothes, to look after the lady, to put pillows under her feet, to clean the samovar, to tie warm socks to winter.
Perhaps she is a former serf who once belonged to this landowner. But after the abolition of serfdom, she did not go anywhere, and remained with her in the maidservants. Most likely, she has to maintain life and order in this house, in which they exist together, due to the circumstances.
Reform on the abolition of serfdom affected the lifestyle of all sectors of Russia, including the nobles. They began to lose their social and economic positions, go broke, sell land and estates, leave for the city or abroad.
This is such a sad period of decline and desolation of one of the many noble estates and the artist portrayed us, as if continuing the theme of “binary nests.”.
Despite the warm spring day, the whole picture blows in the fall, nostalgia for the forever gone years. And all these attributes in the form of porcelain dishes and expensive clothes are the remains of the former luxury of the once chic manor.
For the painter Maximov, perhaps this is the most striking work in the emotional plane. It is felt to the smallest detail, a certain stage of life of not only a particular character, but also a whole time era of the middle and end of the 19th century is very real.
An interesting fact from the artist’s work is known that 42 reproductions have been made by Maximov from the painting “Everything in the Past”.