The composition of Perov’s painting “The Sleeping Children”


The picture “Sleeping children” great painter Vasily Grigorievich Perov wrote in the distant 1870. The famous canvas is among the best works of the author and is highly regarded all over the world, both by art connoisseurs and professional critics. The picture is written quite simply, without superfluous delights.

Given the style of writing, the work is attributed to realism, so beloved by the artist. Looking at this canvas, the viewer from the first second is transferred to rural life, typical for that time.

The plot is completely unpretentious and simple, it gives this painting a special charm. On canvas, we do not see images of majestic persons or grandiose battles. Quite the opposite, because the main actors are ordinary barefoot children who sleep in some old shed on straw.

If you look carefully, with what care and frugality painter painted all the details, it becomes quite understandable how much Perov loves what draws, because even a person who

is not too well versed in painting involuntarily begins to sympathize with the little unhappy heroes of the picture.

A soft oblique light falling from above from the window, to a greater extent, illuminates the girl. The boy is almost completely left in the shadows. The artist perfectly reproduces the too complex foreshortenings of the outlines of the children. The viewer can see how Perov admires the head of the girlish head.

The plot of the picture is quite meaningful. The viewer wants to understand his impressions. Why do these children sleep in such a gloomy and dull place? Perhaps they worked hard all day at a landowner, and then fell asleep here. And maybe they were guilty of something, for which their wicked stepmother locked her in a barn.

It seems that these lovely children have no relatives, and they struggle for their existence from the earliest years and earn hard work for life. Perov naturally conveyed the situation of this picture, some of its dramatic nature.

The artist’s talent is fully manifested in the competent use of chiaroscuro and skillful composition construction. This work is an excellent example of Russian realism and can serve as a visual aid for studying the techniques of this direction of painting.


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The composition of Perov’s painting “The Sleeping Children”