Paintings by artist Deineka on the theme of motherhood. Near Kursk

Alexander Deineka. "Mother"

Deineka Alexander Alexandrovich, Russian painter, graphic artist, sculptor, People's Artist of the USSR (1963), full member of the USSR Academy of Arts (1947; vice-president in 1962-1966). Hero of Socialist Labor (1969). Studied in Kharkov art school(1915-1917), at Vkhutemas in Moscow (1920-1925) with V. A. Favorsky. Member of the “Union of Three” (1924, with A. D. Goncharov and Yu. I. Pimenov), member of the artistic associations OST (1925-1927, one of the founders), “October” (1928-1930), Russian Association proletarian artists (1931-1932). Since the 1920s successfully worked in magazine graphics (for the magazines “U Stanka”, “Prozhektor”, etc.), book illustration(to the fables of I. A. Krylov, 1922; book “On Fire” by A. Barbusse, 1927 and 1935), posters, easel graphics (series “Sevastopol”, watercolor, gouache, 1932-1934, Tretyakov Gallery and the State Russian Museum). He owes his understanding of composition, the meaning of line, spot, contrast, etc. primarily to Favorsky.

IN paintings Deineka preserved the style and themes of his early graphic works. His paintings and panels reflect the signs of modernity and the spirit of the era (collectivization, industrialization, military themes, anti-religious pathos, new way of life) in a style close to constructivism and “new materiality.” Deineka’s early works are characterized by asceticism of color, an increased role of silhouette and contour, and montage composition (“On the construction of new workshops,” 1926, Tretyakov Gallery; “Textile workers,” 1927, Russian Russian Museum); in the film “Defense of Petrograd” (1928, Central Museum Armed Forces RF, Moscow) with its heightened rhythm and heroic monumentalization of images, the influence of F. Hodler is noticeable.

At the construction of new workshops.
1926.

Textile workers.
1927.

Defense of Petrograd.
1928.

Deineka paid much attention to the themes of aviation (“In the Air”, 1932, KG, Kursk; “Future Pilots”, 1938, Tretyakov Gallery) and sports (“Football Player”, 1934, Tretyakov Gallery; “Running”, 1934, State Russian Museum, etc.); In connection with the theme of physical education, the artist often turned to the image of a naked body (“Ball Game”, 1932, Tretyakov Gallery, etc.).

In the air.
1932.

Future pilots.
1938.

Run.
1934.

Ball game.
1932.

His genre works, still lifes, portraits and landscapes of the 1930s are marked by lyricism. (“Mother”, 1932, Tretyakov Gallery; “Girl with a book”, 1934, Russian Russian Museum; “Collective farmer on a bicycle”, 1935, Russian Russian Museum).

Mother.
1932.

Girl with a book.
1934.

Collective farmer on a bicycle.
1935.

In 1934-1935 he visited France, Italy and the USA, completing a number of graphic and paintings. His battle painting “Defense of Sevastopol” (1942, Russian Russian Museum) and dramatic landscapes “Outskirts of Moscow. November 1941" (1941, Tretyakov Gallery), "Burnt Village" (1942, State Russian Museum), etc.; graphic series “Roads of War” (sanguine, 1942, State Russian Museum) and “Military Moscow” (watercolor, gouache, 1946, Tretyakov Gallery).

Defense of Sevastopol.
1942.

Outskirts of Moscow. November 1941.
1941.

Burnt village.
1942.

Epic scope and optimism distinguish Deineka’s genre paintings of the 1940s. (“Razdolie”, 1944, State Russian Museum; “Ring Relay “B””, 1947, Tretyakov Gallery).

Expanse.
1944.

Relay race "B".
1947.

In his later work, Deineka repeated the themes and images of his early works, interpreting them more and more picturesquely.

An outstanding master of monumental and decorative painting, Deineka created panels for Soviet pavilions at the World Exhibitions in Paris (1937, big gold medal) and Brussels (1958, gold medal), a number of frescoes and lampshades for the All-Russian Agricultural Exhibition (1939), a lampshade in the foyer of the Central Exhibition Center (1940) ), a series of 35 lampshades “Day of the Country of Soviets” for the Mayakovskaya station (1938-39) and mosaics for the Novokuznetskaya station (1943, all smalt) of the Moscow Metro; frieze with portraits of scientists for Moscow State University (Florentine mosaic, 1951-52), etc.

Mosaic panel metro station "Mayakovskaya". Jump into the water.
1938.

Mosaic panel Novokuznetskaya metro station.

He also worked as a set designer (“Bath” by V.V. Mayakovsky in the Moscow Theater named after V.E. Meyerhold, 1930, etc.), from 1939 and as a sculptor (compositions on sports theme, bronze and wood). Deineka's work had a significant influence on the formation of a harsh style in Soviet art. In 1970, the Kursk Art Gallery was named after Deineka. He taught in Moscow - at the Vkhutein (1928-30), the Printing Institute (1928-1934), the Moscow Art Institute (1934-46 and 1957-63; professor since 1940), the Institute of Applied and decorative arts(1945-52, director in 1945-48), MARCHI (1953-57). Lenin Prize (1964).

Essays: Life, art, time. Literary and artistic heritage. L., 1974.
Literature: KuhirtU. A. Deineka. Dresden, 1974; Demosthenova G. L. Magazine graphics by Deineka, 1920s - early. 1930s M., 1979; Barabanova N. Deineka. M., 1980; A. Deineka. (Kat.). Düsseldorf, 1982; Sysoev V. P. A. Deineka. M., 1989. T. 1-2. ( A. M. Muratov).

Artist Alexander Deineka

Alexander Deineka, a wonderful Russian artist, appeared in completely in different light to those who knew him little, and to those who knew him closely. Therefore, judgments about him as a person and as an artist were distinguished by extraordinary contrast. To those who judged him from afar, he seemed to be a simple, simply one-line man, and the artist was often seen primarily as a depicter of striking signs characteristic of the twentieth century, associated with industry, sports, and aviation. Deineka’s modernity has been the subject of critics’ discussions many times; it was obvious, even, perhaps, too obvious, obscuring for many the possibility, and, most likely, the need for closer attention to to the great master, to the very complex essence of his art.

A. A. Deineka, “Two Models”, 1923, Kursk Art Gallery

I knew Deineka for many years and very closely. For me, he was different: a gentle and subtle man, shy and easily vulnerable, not prone to romantic words, but, essentially, a romantic, a man who thought in large categories and concepts and at the same time knew how to isolate himself in the most intimate lyricism. Through an epically wide circle modern themes, modern images he could come to a concentrated, excited personal experience and feeling. He knew how to understand, experience and express in deep images and perfect form the main and fundamental humanistic meaning of his time and express it not formally, not in plots alone, but in a strictly and clearly thought-out, subtle construction of all elements of the artistic form - composition, color, space, movement, rhythm. There is no doubt about the time, what kind of people are represented in Deineka’s paintings, watercolors, and drawings, and not because he selected many details of external verisimilitude, but due to the deepest internal justification and authenticity of human images, the entire image of his time created by him.

A. A. Deineka, “On the Balcony”, 1931

In a row best paintings Deineka, such as “Mother”, “Girl at the Window”, “Sleeping Boy”, “On the Balcony”, “Landscape with Horses and Dry Herbs” and others, there is no locally defined plot, nor are there any details specifically clarifying the historical time , however, it is precisely our time that is felt in the entire rhythm and structure of these works, in their color, in the natural, unobtrusive characteristics of the mental and physical appearance of people. Artists of this kind, like Deineka, who relate to their time - to its deeds and aspirations, to its difficulties and successes - with the greatest responsibility, with deep personal interest, will certainly be connected with their era with a thousand inextricable threads, and that is why they will always touch and excite audiences from all ages.

A. A. Deineka, “Runners”, 1934, Russian Russian Museum

Already at the First Discussion Exhibition of 1924, where Deineka, a student at Vkhutemas, appeared as part of a special “group of three” (together with G. Pimenov and A. Goncharov), he had a clearly expressed creative look and very clearly visible inclinations and aspirations. A year later, in 1925, Deineka became one of the founders of OST, and this finally determined the future path of the artist, passionate about images. modern man. At first, in the program and practice of OST there was a lot of purely speculative experimental fervor and mischief, but something else is important - in this Society reigned creative atmosphere, he was dominated by a greedy interest in revolutionary novelty modern reality, to new forms of life, and not just to new forms of painting and graphics for their own sake. Often, despite all the immaturity of formal quests (after all, in 1924 Deineka was twenty-five, Pimenov and Goncharov were twenty-one years old), these artistic youth of that time set themselves very serious and important tasks. OST very significantly and powerfully solved many of these problems during its short existence - it was from here, among other works, that the first truly monumental Soviet historical-revolutionary picture, bearing a generalized and deeply effective image, came out - “Defense of Petrograd” by Deineka (1927).

A. A. Deineka, “Defense of Petrograd”, 1928, Moscow, Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation

This wonderful painting, shown in February 1928 at an exhibition dedicated to the tenth anniversary of the Red Army, is one of the strongest embodiments in art of the image of the Revolution, which can rightfully and honorably stand on a par with “The Oath of the Siberian Partisans” by S. Gerasimov and “October” by A. Matveeva. In the stern, strict rhythm of the figures of workers marching to the defense of Petrograd, in the unyielding will and convinced strength of these people, there is a powerful breath of revolutionary reality. The slow, intermittent rhythm of the movement of the wounded walking in the opposite direction only further highlights and emphasizes the collected, ordered dynamics of the measuredly and harmoniously walking detachment, while at the same time introducing a tense dramatic accent into the structure of the picture. The place and time of action are given with an extremely meager hint; the composition is almost completely freed from any local and everyday signs, and nothing interferes with the majestic heroic generality artistic image. But given the epically monumental structure of the painting, its heroes are real living people, with different appearances and characters, united by mood and action. This dramatic and at the same time confidently calm pathos of the picture is largely contributed by its coloring - almost monochrome, shimmering with metallic reflections. His restraint to a certain extent determines the harsh heroic pathos of Deineka’s creation. Such a plan and such execution of the painting clearly indicated that it arose as a result of great thought and great emotional excitement, which have fully retained their captivating power to this day.

A. A. Deineka, “On the construction of new workshops”, 1926, Tretyakov Gallery

It was not at all easy for Deineke to create his first significant painting; it is enough to look at what preceded it and surrounded it in his work of the 1920s. The few paintings created before the “Defense of Petrograd” can only be regarded as an experiment, but not as an accomplishment (“Before the descent into the mine” 1925, “On the construction of new workshops” 1926) in them there is much that was new and daring for those times - in the construction of a conventional space, in the same conventional color, in the deliberately sharp expressiveness of gestures and poses - but in general these works are schematic, and the “composition” completely prevails in them over real knowledge and real feeling life. And the same can be said about most of Deineka’s graphic works of 1925-1929, when he made a lot of superficial magazine drawings and tried caricature, for which he had absolutely no ability. But even from this dross of passable works, excellent works, full of natural simplicity and harmony, suddenly stood out sharply and unexpectedly. This is the charming drawing “Tennis” (1926) - four lungs graceful figurines female athletes. Such works stood out from the general stream precisely because they featured a lively and interestedly felt human image by the artist.

A. A. Deineka , "Physical worker. Work, build and don't whine!", 1933

Experience of the “Defense of Petrograd” and best drawings the end of the 1920s gave its fruitful results very quickly. First of all, in 1930, it was reflected with great brilliance in Deineka’s posters (“Mechanizing Donbass”, “Physical Kulturnitsa”), where the techniques of a strictly thought-out and constructed composition, full of rapid dynamics, with a minted clear silhouette and conditional, spread-out space, were very happily used , and most importantly - with living, albeit generally typified, human images. Following the posters, they appeared already in 1931 beautiful paintings and watercolors, very different in themes and spiritual content, but equally speaking about the steadily developing great and mature mastery.

A. A. Deineka, “Model”, 1936, Kursk Art Gallery named after A. Deineka

In the transfer of both deeply tragic (“Mercenary of the Interventionists”), and light, joyful, personal (“On the Balcony”, “Girl at the Window. Winter”, all 1931) artistic gift Deineki finally revealed himself in all his multifaceted wealth. Sharp and bright, keenly observed characteristics of the depicted people; meager selection of the minimum necessary signs of place and time; bold, free, even bizarrely detached composition; color, discreet and fully responsive emotional state, - all this spoke of the real emotion and effective humanism of the creator of these paintings, very far from the elementary, purely external “modernity” that they often wanted to see in Deineka’s art.

A. A. Deineka, “Dry Leaves”, 1933, Kursk Art Gallery named after A. Deineka (KKG)

The year 1932 marked the final turning point in the development of Deineka’s art towards a grand style, truly monumental in form and imbued with great humanity. The strongest and most perfect embodiment of this turning point (or, essentially, the master’s complete artistic maturity) was the painting “Mother” (1932), which undoubtedly belongs to the pinnacle of Soviet art. He could only find the fullness of feeling that Deineka was able to express in this picture only in a deep belief in the enduring moral strength and dignity of man. The great tenderness and all-consuming love of a woman for her baby gave the artist the opportunity to create a generalized image of a noble and beautiful maternal soul. This is helped by the natural asymmetrical composition, the restrained simplicity of the color scheme, and the choice of models. However, despite all the typification of the images, the viewer is left with the feeling that the woman and the boy were painted from life, their living, captivating features are so uniquely individual. Only this “Madonna of the twentieth century” could give Deineka the right to one of the first places in Soviet art. But the picture was not a lonely success. It is the first in a whole series of excellent works of the same year, 1932 and the next few years. Some of them especially stand out for their bold novelty and poetic charm. This is “Sleeping Boy with Cornflowers”, “Afternoon” (both 1932), “ Night landscape with horses and dry herbs”, “Bathing girls” (both 1933). If they represent the lyrical line in Deineka’s work, then the socio-political, as well as the artistic and journalistic side of his art is no less strongly represented by the painting “Unemployed in Berlin” (1933) and the intensely dramatic, anger-breathing drawings for the book “Fire” by A. Barbusse (1934).

A. A. Deineka, “Mother”, 1932, Tretyakov Gallery

The unusually stormy and intense creative tension of these years - the mid-1930s - will be even more evident if we add to the listed works two wonderful cycles of watercolors and paintings that arose as a result of trips to Sevastopol in 1934 and abroad - to France, Italy, USA - in 1935. All these works - from the painting “Mother” to works made in America - are distinguished by their special pictorial richness, unusually refined coloristic harmony, inexhaustible inventiveness of compositional structure, invariably remaining imbued with the truth of life and heightened psychological expressiveness. It is necessary to note some aspects and features of Deineka’s creativity in this rich and fruitful period. First of all, the artist’s ability to find extremely living and attractive models their paintings, as a rule, are far from the classical ideal of beauty, but always glowing with intelligence and spiritual purity, spiritualized morally and intellectually. No less important is Deineka’s ability to extract high poetic values ​​from everyday reality, to vigilantly see the extraordinary in the ordinary, to look for those details real life, which work for a modern vision of the world and carry within themselves the fire of poetic transformation of what they see.

A. A. Deineka, “In a Parisian cafe,” 1935, Russian Russian Museum

This quality was especially impressive in Deineka’s Sevastopol and foreign works. The deserted “Quirinal Square” or the quaint “Spanish Steps” convey the unique “spirit of the area”, the atmosphere of the streets of Rome. And “Embankment of the Seine” or “Road to Mount Vernon” sound just as authentic in Paris and American watercolors and oil studies. Often poetic portraits of specific places outgrow the boundaries of their genre, becoming generalizations of entire layers of time, entire historical eras. Such is the wonderful watercolor “Tuileries” (1935) with the sculpture of a rapidly running girl depicted on it and with the motionless frozen figure of a man - a tramp or an unemployed person - on a garden bench. Such is the touching and tender “Negro Concert” (1935), which seems to capture the very sound of music and singing, the very image and style of American music of the mid-20th century. In the second half of the 1930s, Deineka’s art widely included new themes. Two are especially characteristic of this time: aviation and history. They captured the artist’s imagination in connection with his work on illustrations for the children’s books “Across the Pole to America” by G. Baidukov and “Our Aviation” by I. Mazuruk (published in 1938 and 1940). Numerous watercolor illustrations for them reflect the pristine grandeur of the endless ice of the North or the expanses of the snow-covered Moscow region. Despite their small size, they are distinguished by their monumental breadth. Historical themes, associated with the years of revolution, occupied Deineka’s imagination before, but now the occasion was orders for monumental panels depicting episodes of pre-revolutionary Russian history. The panels have not survived, but from their sketches one can see how much work and effort Deineka spent searching for a strict and orderly organization of these multi-figure compositions. However, the works cannot be called successful, just like the huge panels for the Paris and New York exhibitions and mosaics and paintings for the Moscow metro. There are noticeable features of far-fetchedness or rational deliberateness in them.

A. A. Deineka, “Ball Game”, 1932, Tretyakov Gallery

Deineka, quite naturally came to monumental painting, but the result in those years remained far from perfect. The master's preoccupation with labor-intensive monumental works led in the second half of the 1930s to a sharp decrease in the number of new easel paintings and watercolors. Only three paintings from this period deserve attention: “The First Five-Year Plan” (1936), “Nikitka - the first Russian flyer” (1940), “Left March” (1941). I think that in the period between 1935 and 1941 Deineka did not write anything more significant and responsible than the “First Five-Year Plan” and the “Left March” that followed it. The painting “The First Five-Year Plan” (a group of workers walking, with stern, serious, tense faces, and behind them, above, against the sky, the Greek statue of the Nike of Samothrace - a proud personification of victory) once again proved one of Deineka’s most important properties: the ability to create living human images , full of psychological complexity and heightened expressiveness. The same can be said about the painting “Left March”, written on the theme famous poem V. Mayakovsky. Of course, the picture went far beyond a simple illustration. A solid line of sailors is walking across the bridge directly towards the viewer, followed by other rows of sailors and soldiers. Deineka brilliantly found this measured, heavy rhythm of steps, the remarkably lively, different, but equally stern faces of the sailors, united by a single will and a single aspiration. Again, as always, success came to Deineka primarily because he created full-blooded and living human images in this picture.

A. A. Deineka, “Defense of Sevastopol”, 1942, State Russian Museum

The years of the Great Patriotic War saw one of the highest rises in Deineka’s work. All the obviously superficial features of speculative deliberateness immediately disappeared, everything caused not by spiritual need, but by all sorts of passing external conditions. Already Deineka’s first work “Outskirts of Moscow. 1941" (1941) became almost a symbol of anxiety for the capital and at the same time a generalized image of the impregnable Moscow of the war years. Deineka managed to find this synthesized embodiment of time in a few details - in the rapid movement of a racing military truck, in the gloomy desolation of a deserted street, blocked by gouges, in quiet houses covered in a snowstorm. After several works with painfully disturbing images of death and suffering (for example, “Burnt Village”, 1942), Deineka created “Defense of Sevastopol” (1942) - one of his most powerful paintings and one of the most dramatic works of all Soviet art of that time - mournful and a majestic heroic epic about the feat of the defenders of Sevastopol. Stormy, extremely intense pathos, sharp force of expression, powerful dynamics distinguish it among Deineka’s most pathetic works. With the turning point to victory, the images of the artist’s still intensely intense works also changed: “Downed Ace” (1943), with its mercilessly harsh and at the same time generously humane truth of the artistic image, and the watercolor “Berlin. On the day of signing the declaration" (1945), written by Deineka from life and raised to a symbolic generalization, are excellent evidence of the universality of those feelings that owned everything Soviet people at the end of the war. In 1946, based on Deineka’s sketches, he created a series of watercolors “War Moscow”, where the life of the capital during the war years was vigilantly seen and reliably conveyed, but it was conveyed with epic calm, without tension and anxiety. How deep this “detente” was in the artist’s mood by the end of the war is clearly demonstrated by his large painting “Expansion” (1944) - joyful, full of life-affirming festive brightness, sounding like a song thanks to its clear, transparent, light rhythmic and coloristic structure.

A. A. Deineka, "Bathing", 1952, private collection

The images of girls running along a river up a steep slope are one of the most elegant and attractive embodiments of youth and beauty in Deineka’s work. In the post-war period, Deineka's art was very uneven. But where he remained himself, where he returned to the foundations of his gift, where he moved away from schemes to living, brightly individual human images, luck always came to him and strong, boldly innovative works were born. Such films as “Donbass” (1947), “In the vastness of construction sites near Moscow” (1949), “Tractor Driver”, “In Sevastopol”, “By the Sea. Fisherwomen" (all 1956), mosaics such as "Parachutist" (1957), "Red Guardsman", "Milkmaid" (both 1962), such drawings as "Nude Girl" (1951) are creations great artist, in love with life, admiring the moral and physical beauty and dignity of man.

During these years, Deineka also had success in monumental and decorative art - in mosaics for the foyer of the assembly hall of Moscow University (1956), for the Palace of Congresses in the Moscow Kremlin. And yet it can be said that the “monumentalism” of Deineka’s art has never manifested itself in such a consistent and pure form, how in easel painting and watercolors - right here big style Least of all, it turned out to be a preconceived, pre-planned form, but became an organically integral and natural expression of the sense of real time in its most progressive and effective interpretation, and became a faithful echo of true and eternal human values.

A. A. Deineka, “Self-portrait”, 1948, KKG

Due to serious illness, Deineka was unable to work for the last two years of his life. He was no longer able to see the large exhibition of his works, organized in 1969. If the artist, following words of wisdom Daumier belongs to his time, then his art does not age. By absorbing and as if condensing the best and most important thoughts, feelings, mental movements of his time, being able to see and express the seemingly inexpressible shades and signs of the moral and physical appearance of his contemporary, the artist gains eternal life, the undying power of influence on people of subsequent generations. The best works of Alexander Deineka undoubtedly have all the advantages necessary for such a high rating.

A. Chegodpev,
"The Art of the Soviet Union"
Album, second edition (1984)

"Maternal happiness."
1869.
Private collection.

"Young mother with child."
1871.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

"A young mother watching her sleeping child."
1871.
Private collection.

"The Happiness of Motherhood."
1878.
Private collection.

"Motherland".
1883.
Private collection.

"Mother with child."
1887.
Private collection.

"Mother".
1932.

Alexander Maksovich Shilov.
“In the cell (Mother Paisia). Pyukhtitsa Monastery.
1988.

1. A woman in relation to the children she gives birth to.
The son stroked his mother’s hand in confusion and was silent. ( M. Gorky. Life of Klim Samgin.)

2. The female in relation to her cubs.
At night they carry them [lambs and kids] to their mothers. ( Sholokhov. Upturned virgin soil.)

3. Addressing a female person.
Lizanka stood up from the hoop and began to clean up her work. - What are you talking about, my mother! Deaf or something! - the countess shouted. ( Pushkin. Queen of Spades.)

4. The name of a nun, as well as the wife of a clergyman (priest, deacon), usually attached to the name or title.
Mother Pulcheria herself, the Moscow abbess, sent her bows and gifts from pilgrims. ( Melnikov-Pechersky. In forests.)

What (or how) did the mother give birth?- without clothes, naked.

“Dictionary of the Russian language. Moscow", "Russian language". 1982

Albrecht Altdorfer.
"Christ says goodbye to his mother."
1520.
National Gallery, London.

When a person is suddenly overtaken by trouble, his family and friends often receive some signal of misfortune. At the same time, paintings fall, dishes burst, clocks stop, visions arise, and doubles of the dying person appear. When one boy, left in the care of his grandmother, began to drown in the river, his mother, being thousands of kilometers away, clearly saw her child flopping desperately in the water. He was caught, and it was decided not to tell his mother anything, so as not to bother her in vain. But the mother came, told all the details of the adventure, showed the place where the boy almost drowned. This and many other similar cases are described in L. Vasilyeva’s book “Suggestion at a Distance.”

Anatoly Strozhkov. "There is a mysterious connection between living beings." “Behind seven seals” No. 7 2005.

Vasily Vasilievich Vereshchagin.
“Letter to the Motherland (Letter to Mother).”
1901.

Mother was called mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, parent.

Vasily Belov. "Lad." Moscow, "Young Guard". 1982

Vasily Grigorievich Perov.
"Mother with a sick child."
1878.

Vasily Ivanovich Surikov.
"Salome brings the head of John the Baptist to her mother Herodias."
1872.

“Two mothers. Mother is adopted and natural."
1906.
Samara regional Art Museum, Samara.

"Mother and daughter".
1886.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Engraving by I.M. Bernigerota.

Mid-18th century.

"Johanna Elisabeth, Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst, née Princess of Holstein-Gottorp, mother of Empress Catherine II."
1870s.

“The Motherland is calling.”
1941.

Elizaveta Merkuryevna Boehm (Endaurova).
“The blue eyes look so sad and meek. I haven’t forgotten, you know, orphan of Mother’s affection!”

Ivan Akimovich Akimov.
“Grand Duke Svyatoslav kissing his mother and children upon returning from the Danube to Kyiv.”
1773.

"Mother with child."
1915.

Karl Pavlovich Bryullov.
"Mother Waking Up to Baby's Cry."
1831.

Karl Steuben.
"Peter the Great, saved by his mother from the fury of the archers."

"Mother".
1913.

"Mother".
1919.
Drawing for the magazine "Flame".

Leonardo da Vinci.
"The fetus is in the mother's womb."

"Breastfeeding mother"

M. Savitsky.
"Women-mothers".
Fragment of the painting “Patriotic War. 1944."

Unknown artist.
“Portrait of a Woman (Alleged portrait of the mother of the poet M. Yu. Lermontov).”

Nicholas Konstantinovich Roerich.
"Mother of the World"
1930.

Nikolay Nevrev.
“Peter I in foreign attire in front of his mother Queen Natalya, Patriarch Andrian and teacher Zotov.”
1903.

"Mother and son".
Between 1716 and 1742.

"A mother teaches her daughter to write."

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller.
"Portrait of the mother of Captain von Stirl-Holzmeister."

Frederic Leighton.
"Mother and Child".

Patriotic heroism of peaceful industrial construction, harsh military everyday life and unforgettable days great victory over fascism, the bright joy of motherhood and the intense intensity of sports struggle - all these themes were embodied in the works of the painter, graphic artist, sculptor, master of monumental and decorative art, laureate Lenin Prize, folk artist USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor A. A. Deineka.

Alexander Alexandrovich Deineka

The pathos of Soviet reality, the revolutionary romance of creating a socialist society immediately captured Deineka when, after graduating from the Moscow Vkhutemas (All-Union Art and Technical Workshops) in 1924, he went on a creative trip to the mining Donbass. Live observations of the dedicated work of miners became the basis for the monumental paintings “Before going down into the mine” and “On the construction of new workshops.” In the same manner, restrained in color and laconic, but full of internal dynamics, Deineka painted the painting “Defense of Petrograd” in 1928, depicting heroic events civil war and the unyielding courage of the defenders of Petrograd, determined to defend the gains of the revolution.

A. Deineka. Before going down into the mine
Canvas, oil. 1925

A. Deineka. Before going down into the mine
Canvas, oil. 1925
State Tretyakov Gallery

The best works of the artist of the 1930s are dedicated to the labor feat of the people - the builders of socialism. The color of Deineka’s paintings is warming. During these years, his images acquired a subtle lyricism. These features were especially evident in the painting “Mother” (1932, State Tretyakov Gallery). Her heroine is a working woman, healthy, strong and at the same time feminine. For Deineka, she is the ideal of a new person, developed physically and spiritually, free and harmonious, beautiful morally and physically.

A. Deineka. Mother
Canvas, oil. 1932

A. Deineka. Mother
Canvas, oil. 1932
State Tretyakov Gallery

The artist embodies this ideal in numerous works on sports themes, emphasizing its ennobling effect on people. Deineka’s works, glorifying the perfection of man in the new society, contrast sharply with the paintings created by the artist during his trips abroad. And immediately upon returning to his homeland, he painted a picture filled with sunlight from the life of Soviet children - “Future Pilots” (1938, State Tretyakov Gallery). The world, illuminated by bright dreams, the youth of the Land of the Soviets, confident in its future, appears in this picture.

A. Deineka. Future pilots
Canvas, oil. 1938
State Tretyakov Gallery

A. Deineka. Future pilots
Canvas, oil. 1938
State Tretyakov Gallery

But how harsh this world becomes on the canvases created during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The capital, bristling with anti-tank hedgehogs and gouges, gathering forces for a decisive counterattack (“Outskirts of Moscow. November 1941”), the heroic defenders of Sevastopol (“Defense of Sevastopol”), the alarming everyday life of the rear (“Anxious Nights”).

A. Deineka. Defense of Sevastopol.
1942. Oil on canvas.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

A. A. Deineka. Defense of Sevastopol.
1942. Oil on canvas.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

IN post-war years Deineka again turns to depicting the everyday work and life of Soviet people. These are multicolored paintings, imbued with bright optimism and the joy of existence, “By the Sea” and “In the Donbass” (both 1956). The artist works a lot in the field of monumental and decorative art. In the early 1950s. Deineka creates mosaics for the Moskovsky building state university on the Lenin Hills, and in 1958 - a panel for the Soviet pavilion on International exhibition in Brussels. For the complex of mosaic works “Red Guardsman”, “Milkmaid”, “Good Morning”, “Hockey Players” Deineka was awarded the Lenin Prize in 1964.