History

The painting by Alexei Kharlamov "Italian Woman with a Tambourine" depicts a girl against the background of a forest thicket, in her hand raised above her head - a tambourine. At the bottom left there is a stream and a small waterfall, and on the right in the middle, on the branches there is a bright green lizard. The plot of the picture was explained by the art critic Andrei Ivanovich Somov, who saw the work in 1883 at the 11th exhibition of the Itinerants and gave it a rather detailed description: “A. Kharlamov sent three works to the exhibition from Paris, generally not bad, but adding nothing to the reputation of the "Russian Bonn" he had created. At the sight of his 'The Italian Girl Swinging a Tambourine at a Lizard', ... you ask yourself: was it worth taking this large canvas for such an insignificant plot, was it worth spending so much paint on it and flaunting it like that? "

But if the plot seemed insignificant to the Russian critic, the responses in the French press were different. Thus, the French critic T. Veron, who saw the work in the previous year, 1882 at the exhibition of the Salon in Paris, wrote in his review: “An unexpected meeting with a beautiful green lizard crawling on branches in matte or reddened autumn. This is a meeting of a small Italian woman in profile, who is looking at the emerald of a small lizard. In excitement, she tosses her tambourine with silver bells into the air and gives them a cat concert. The image of this girl swinging at a thick and reddish tree is very attractive. A. Kharlamov is a hot and powerful colorist. "

Now, more than a century later, the outlines of a figure are clearly visible behind the girl's back. Kharlamov either initially introduced another character, and then for some reason wrote it down, or the position of the girl's figure on the canvas was different. This to some extent explains the artist's miscalculations both in the drawing of her hand, which looks unnaturally short, and in the position of the figure, which stands strictly in the center and leaned back a little. By the way, these errors in the picture were immediately noticed by the critics of that time. Thus, the critic Vladimir Sizov argued that "from a technical point of view, the picture seems unfinished."

Details

- The plot of this work is explained by a more complete title, which was mentioned by the artist's contemporary critic Somov: “An Italian girl swinging a tambourine

- Now, more than a century later, the outlines of another figure are clearly visible behind the girl's back. Kharlamov or originally introduced another subject



Please Note: Not written by me but translated from the website: https://ar.culture.ru/ru/subject/a-a-harlamov-italyanka-s-tamburinom -