History

On the canvas "Mordovian Girl" Kharlamov depicted a girl in the national Mordovian costume Erzya. The model on his canvas is dressed in a rutsa - a dressing gown decorated with embroidery.

"Mordovian Girl" was written during Kharlamov's foreign retirement trip after graduating from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts with a large gold medal. Shown in 1873 at the World Exhibition in Vienna, "Mordovian Girl" became one of the paintings for which the artist received a bronze medal. The assessment of this work by contemporaries was ambiguous. The critic Stasov, in his review of the Vienna World's Fair, called it "strongly written." Kramskoy judged more harshly: “When Bogolyubov pointed at her with particular chic, then, a sinful man, I even admired for five minutes, then, looking around and moving from one piece of painting to another, I had to confess that all this was invented, false, wrong, and in the end he rejected. " Note that the painting was acquired by Bogolyubov no later than 1874 (possibly immediately after the World Exhibition).

Kharlamov is often called a salon artist. One of the journalists of that era wrote that his specialty was "children's heads and scenes from children's life." This kind of work was typical of salon art. In the "heads" the painter was primarily guided by the tastes of his customers. His "heads", designed to decorate a wealthy home, were as pleasant as the salon painting itself.

In Kharlamov's "Mordovian Girl", various stylistic trends of the second half of the 19th century are intertwined. It contains not only echoes of romanticism and sentimentalism - it is no coincidence that contemporaries saw in his “heads” both the influence of the French artist of the 18th century Greuze, and the features of realism (in the choice of theme and in the attraction to psychologism) and eclecticism. "Mordovka", like many "heads" of Kharlamov of the 1870s, evokes associations with the works of the caravaggists who worked in Italy in the 17th century in the genre of bamboccianti. They often painted scenes from folk life, where commoners, merchants, beggars, gypsies, etc. appeared. But Kharlamov does not address such motives, he only borrows the type and manner of writing. The color scheme of the picture is in brown tones. Here we can talk about the caravaggist style of tenebroso with its sharp chiaroscuro.

Note that the "heads" make up most of Kharlamov's creative heritage. Undoubtedly, commercial success played an important role in their creation. But unlike most of Kharlamov's "heads" in "Mordovian Girl" there is almost no touch of sweetness. Undoubtedly, this is one of the best works of Kharlamov.

Details

- In this work, the artist is ethnographically accurate in conveying the Erzya Mordovian costume. The model on his canvas is dressed in a rutsa - a dressing gown,

- The painter seeks to convey the state of mind of the model: hidden sadness and unaccountable melancholy are read in the eyes of the girl. Intense contrast of light

- Compared to the girl's face, her outfit is written more freely. Small strokes are perceived as interspersed with jewelry in a painting fabric


Please Note: Text not written by me but translated from: https://artefact.app/ru/subject/a-a-harlamov-mordovskaya-devushka -