The Night Before Christmas illustration for the story. Fairytale illustrations of "The Night Before Christmas" by Gogol

The last day before Christmas is replaced by a clear, frosty night. The girls and boys had not yet come out to carol, and no one saw how smoke came out of the chimney of one hut and a witch rose on a broom. She flashes like a black speck in the sky, gathering stars into her sleeve, and the devil flies towards her, who has “the last night left to wander around the world.”

Illustrations by Olga Ionaitis. Publishing house "Rosman", year of publication 2009

Having stolen the month, the devil hides it in his pocket, assuming that the coming darkness will keep the rich Cossack Chub, who was invited to the clerk for a feast, at home, and the blacksmith Vakula, hated by the devil (who painted a picture of the Last Judgment and the shamed devil on the church wall) will not dare to come to Chubova’s daughter Oksana .

While the devil is building chickens for the witch, Chub and his godfather, who came out of the hut, do not decide whether to go to the sexton, where a pleasant company will gather over the varenukha, or, in view of such darkness, to return home - and they leave, leaving the beautiful Oksana in the house, who was dressing up in front of the mirror, for which and Vakula finds her.

The stern beauty mocks him, not at all moved by his gentle speeches. The disgruntled blacksmith goes to unlock the door, on which Chub, who has lost his way and lost his godfather, knocks, having decided on the occasion of the blizzard raised by the devil to return home.

However, the blacksmith’s voice makes him think that he was not in his own hut (but in a similar one, the lame Levchenko, to whose young wife the blacksmith probably came). Chub changes his voice, and the angry Vakula, jabbing him, kicks him out. The beaten Chub, having realized that the blacksmith has therefore left his own home, goes to his mother, Solokha. Solokha, who was a witch, returned from her journey, and the devil flew with her, dropping a month in the chimney.

It became light, the snowstorm subsided, and crowds of carolers poured into the streets. The girls come running to Oksana, and, noticing on one of them new slippers embroidered with gold, Oksana declares that she will marry Vakula if he brings her the slippers “that the queen wears.”

Meanwhile, the devil, who had relaxed at Solokha’s place, is scared away by his head, who did not go to the clerk for the feast. The devil quickly climbs into one of the bags left among the hut by the blacksmith, but soon his head has to climb into another, because the clerk is knocking on Solokha’s door.

Praising the virtues of the incomparable Solokha, the clerk is forced to climb into the third bag, since Chub appears. However, Chub also climbs into the same place, avoiding meeting with the returning Vakula. While Solokha is talking in the garden with the Cossack Sverbyguz, who has come after him, Vakula takes away the bags thrown in the middle of the hut, and, saddened by the quarrel with Oksana, does not notice their weight.

Vakula comes to the Cossack Pot-bellied Patsyuk, who, as they say, is “a little like the devil.” Having caught the owner eating dumplings, and then dumplings, which themselves climbed into Patsyuk’s mouth, Vakula timidly asks the way to hell, relying on his help in his misfortune. Having received a vague answer that the devil is behind him, Vakula runs away from the savory dumplings falling into his mouth.

Anticipating easy prey, the devil jumps out of the bag and, sitting on the blacksmith’s neck, promises him Oksana that same night. The cunning blacksmith, having grabbed the devil by the tail and crossed him, becomes the master of the situation and orders the devil to take himself “to Petemburg, straight to the queen.”

Illustrator Kost Lavro (Ukraine)

Having found Kuznetsov’s bags at that time, the girls want to take them to Oksana to see what Vakula caroled. They go for the sled, and Chubov’s godfather, calling a weaver to help, drags one of the sacks into his hut. There, a fight ensues with the godfather's wife over the unclear but tempting contents of the bag. Chub and the clerk find themselves in the bag. When Chub, returning home, finds a head in the second bag, his disposition towards Solokha greatly decreases.

The blacksmith, having galloped to St. Petersburg, appears to the Cossacks who were passing through Dikanka in the fall, and, holding the devil in his pocket, tries to be taken to an appointment with the queen. Marveling at the luxury of the palace and the wonderful paintings on the walls, the blacksmith finds himself in front of the queen, and when she asks the Cossacks, who came to ask for their Sich, “what do you want?”, the blacksmith asks her for her royal shoes. Touched by such innocence, Catherine draws attention to this passage of Fonvizin standing at a distance, and gives Vakula shoes, having received which he considers it a blessing to go home.

In the village at this time, the Dikan women in the middle of the street are arguing about exactly how Vakula committed suicide, and the rumors that have reached about this confuse Oksana, she does not sleep well at night, and not finding the devout blacksmith in the church in the morning, she is ready to cry. The blacksmith simply slept through matins and mass, and upon awakening, he takes a new hat and belt out of the chest and goes to Chub to woo him. Chub, wounded by Solokha’s treachery, but seduced by gifts, agrees. He is echoed by Oksana, who has entered and is ready to marry the blacksmith “without slippers.” Having started a family, Vakula painted his hut with paints, and in the church he painted a devil, and “so disgusting that everyone spat when they passed by.”

Description of the presentation by individual slides:

1 slide

Slide description:

Compare the illustration with the text of Gogol's story. Which words from “The Night Before Christmas” are consistent with the artist’s drawing? 2. How is Oksana’s appearance drawn by the author of the story and the blacksmith Vakula? How does the heroine of the story characterize her appearance? What features of Oksana’s portrait did the artist manage to convey in the illustration? How does the blacksmith Vakula appear on the pages of the story? How is his portrait drawn by the author of the story and the artist? What talents was Vakula generously endowed with? How are his abilities assessed by different characters in the story? The artist who captured Oksana and the blacksmith Vakula brought together the characters’ appearances scattered throughout the story. Compose an oral story based on Rodionov’s illustration, based on the text of “The Night Before Christmas.” M. S. Rodionov. Oksana and blacksmith Vakula. 1952

2 slide

Slide description:

A. P. Bubnov. “Get your boots, I’ll get married!”, 1954. Take a closer look at the illustration. What scene of the story is depicted on it? Which fragments of the work speak of the booties “that the queen wears”? How does Vakula feel about Oksana’s words about the “tsarina’s booties”? What worries him about Oksana? Looking at the illustration, the reader involuntarily recalls the words from the story: “The blacksmith stood rooted to the spot in one place.” These words, along with Vakula’s internal monologue, convey his experiences. How did the artist capture the blacksmith? What words of the story speak about the physical power of the blacksmith Vakula? The bag on Vakula’s shoulder was noticed by Oksana (“Well, did you do a lot of caroling? Eh, what a small bag!”) What is the contents of this bag? How did Vakula dispose of the remaining two bags? How do these bags determine the further development of events in the story?

3 slide

Slide description:

M. S. Rodionov. “Come on, man...get out of the bag!” 1952 1.Remember the events of the story preceding the episode, which is recreated in Rodionov’s illustration. In which house does the scene captured by the artist take place? How did the bag thrown by the blacksmith “in the middle of the road” get there? Why did the head in the bag remain silent until the moment the bag was dragged into the hut? 2. Which of the characters in the story is depicted in the artist’s illustration? How is the appearance of the head characterized in the story and how is the hero depicted in the picture? 3. How does the Cossack Korniy Chub appear in the illustration and how is he characterized in Gogol’s story? Compare the words of the amazed Chub, uttered by him in the scene when the clerk emerged from the bag, and in the scene when the head captured in Rodionov’s drawing came out of the bag.

4 slide

Slide description:

A. P. Bubnov. Return of Vakula with booties. 1954 Look closely at the expressive scene recreated by the artist in the illustration, and read the words of the writer conveying this episode of the story that excites the reader. Share your impressions of the drawing. What was the artist trying to tell the reader by depicting Oksana in the illustration? What feelings, “one more annoying than the other, one more sad than the other,” tormented Oksana before her unexpected meeting with Vakula? How are the experiences of the blacksmith Vakula conveyed in the illustrations?

5 slide

Slide description:

A. M. Laptev. Return of the blacksmith Vakula. 1959 1. The scene of Vakula’s meeting with Oksana after his magical return from St. Petersburg attracted the attention of not only the artist A.P. Bubnov, but also A.M. Laptev. Compare the illustrations of these artists. Pay attention to the location of the characters, the artists’ descriptions of the heroes of the story, the depiction of costumes and the setting of the action. What words from Gogol’s work can be used to sign each of the illustrations?

6 slide

Slide description:

1. The scene of Vakula’s meeting with Oksana after his magical return from St. Petersburg attracted the attention of not only the artist A. P. Bubnov, but also A. M. Laptev. Compare the illustrations of these artists. Pay attention to the location of the characters, the artists’ descriptions of the heroes of the story, the depiction of costumes and the setting of the action. What words from Gogol’s work can be used to sign each of the illustrations?

Artist Kost Lavro “The Night Before Christmas”

- So, godfather, you haven’t been to the clerk in the new house yet? - said the Cossack Chub, leaving the door of his hut, to a lean, tall man in a short sheepskin coat with a bushy beard, showing that a piece of a scythe, with which men usually shave their beards for lack of a razor, had not touched it for more than two weeks. - Now there will be a good drinking party! - Chub continued, grinning his face. - How about we not be late? .

Oksana, moving the mirror a little further away from herself, cried out, “No, I’m good! Oh, how good! Miracle! What joy will I bring to the one I will marry! How my husband will admire me! He won't remember himself. He will kiss me to death"

Solokha thought for a long time about where to hide such a dense guest; finally she chose the largest bag of coal; coal was poured into a tub, and the hefty head, with mustache, head and caplets, climbed into the bag.

The clerk came in, groaning and rubbing his hands, and said that he had no one and that he was sincerely glad of this opportunity to walk a little with her and was not afraid of the snowstorm. Then he came closer to her, coughed, grinned, touched her naked full hand with his long fingers and said with an expression that showed both slyness and self-satisfaction: “And what do you have, magnificent Solokha?” - And having said this, he jumped back a little.

The month shines wonderfully! It’s hard to tell how good it is to hang around on such a night between a bunch of laughing and singing girls and between boys, ready for all the jokes and inventions that a cheerfully laughing night can inspire. It's warm under the thick casing; the frost makes your cheeks burn even more vividly; and in a prank the evil one himself pushes from behind .

As soon as he had time to think this, Patsyuk opened his mouth, looked at the dumplings and opened his mouth even more. At this time, the dumpling splashed out of the bowl, splashed into the sour cream, turned over to the other side, jumped up and just landed in his mouth.

Then they quickly pulled the sticks out of the fence, put a sack on them and carried them on their shoulders.

-Where are we going to take him? to the tavern? - asked the dear weaver.

“I would have thought so, too, to go to the tavern; but the damned Jew won’t believe it, she’ll also think that it was stolen somewhere; besides, I just came from a tavern. We'll take it to my house. No one will disturb us: Zhinka is not at home.

- My God, what a decoration! - he cried joyfully, grabbing his shoes. - Your Royal Majesty! Well, when the shoes are on your feet, and you feel good about them, your honor, go on the ice forge, what kind of legs should the legs be? I think at least from pure sugar.

The Empress, who certainly had the most slender and charming legs, could not help but smile, hearing such a compliment from the lips of the simple-minded blacksmith, who in his Zaporozhye dress could be considered handsome, despite his dark face.

...and suddenly Petersburg shone before him, all on fire. (Then there was illumination for some occasion.)

- Look at the boots I brought you! - said Vakula, - the same ones that the queen wears.

—- No! No! I don't need booties! “- she said, waving her hands and not taking her eyes off him, “I don’t even have booties...” She didn’t finish further and blushed.

The blacksmith came closer and took her hand; The beauty lowered her eyes. She had never been so wonderfully beautiful. The delighted blacksmith kissed her quietly, and her face lit up even more, and she became even better.

Evil spirits still easily fit into a Cossack’s pocket...

Kostya Lavro was born in 1961 on one of the “Gogol” farms near Dikanka. He picked up a pencil when he was very young - he already really liked the black and white illustrations of “Ukrainian Folk Tales”. From there, brother wolves and sister foxes were copied with great zeal (“It would be nice if my books also awoke someone’s love for this business, and then, look, a new talent will grow,” the artist dreams today) . One day, the father showed his son’s drawings to the teacher, who helped Kostya prepare to enter the Republican Art School. And then there was the army, college and work as an art editor in the magazines “Barvinok”, “Dnepr” (many illustrations for books by different authors), and collaboration in the magazine “Sunflower”.

The last day before Christmas has passed. A clear winter night has arrived. The stars looked out. The moon majestically rose into the sky to shine on good people and the whole world, so that everyone would have fun caroling and praising Christ. * It was freezing more than in the morning; but it was so quiet that the crunch of frost under a boot could be heard half a mile away. Not a single crowd of boys had ever appeared under the windows of the huts; for a month he only glanced at them furtively, as if calling the girls who were dressing up to run out quickly into the crunchy snow. Then smoke fell in clouds through the chimney of one hut and spread like a cloud across the sky, and along with the smoke a witch rose riding on a broom.

Valery Kozhin “Solokha and the Devil”

The story of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol "Christmas Eve"(1832), from the collection “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”, perhaps the most Christmas, most fabulous story for the entire Orthodox world, a symbol of the holiday.

Throughout its history, the book has been published probably hundreds of times. Here we have collected the most wonderful illustrations to this story, which give it a unique, magical flavor. 🙂

Illustration by Olga Ionaitis

Illustrations by Alexander Kuzmin (2011)

From the front it was completely German: a narrow muzzle, constantly twirling and sniffing whatever came its way, ending, like our pigs, in a round snout; the legs were so thin that if Yareskovsky had such a head, he would have broken them in the first Cossack. But behind him he was a real provincial attorney in uniform, because he had a tail hanging, so sharp and long, like today’s uniform coattails; only by the goat beard under his muzzle, by the small horns sticking out on his head, and by the fact that he was no whiter than a chimney sweep, one could guess that he was not a German or a provincial attorney, but just a devil who had his last night left to wander around the world and teach good people the sins. Tomorrow, with the first bells for matins, he will run without looking back, tail between his legs, to his den.

Illustration by Anatoly Timofeevich Zverev, 1955

Pavel Petrovich Sokolov-Skalya

A. Laptev - Solokha and the devil, 1959

...Patsyuk opened his mouth, looked at the dumplings and opened his mouth even more. At this time, the dumpling splashed out of the bowl, plopped into the sour cream, turned over to the other side, jumped up and just landed in his mouth. Patsyuk ate it and opened his mouth again, and the dumpling went out again in the same order. He only took on the labor of chewing and swallowing.

Valery Kozhin

Illustrations by G.A.V. Traugott, Children's Literature, 1986

The month shines wonderfully! It’s hard to tell how good it is to hang around on such a night between a bunch of laughing and singing girls and between boys, ready for all the jokes and inventions that a cheerfully laughing night can inspire. It's warm under the thick casing; the frost makes your cheeks burn even more vividly; and in a prank the evil one himself pushes from behind...

author unknown

Illustrations by Olga Ionaitis. Publishing house "Rosman", year of publication 2009

Illustrator Kost Lavro (Ukraine)

The boys proclaimed in droves that there had never been a better girl, and there never would be in the village. Oksana knew and heard everything that was said about her, and was capricious, like a beauty... The boys chased her in droves, but, having lost patience, they left and turned to others, not so spoiled.

Illustration by M. Rodionov, 1952

Khariton Platonov “Oksana”, 1888

Illustrations by various artists

Illustration by V. Makovsky - Head of Solokha, 1877

Brass month with youthful mischief
He plays catch-and-greet with the stars.
How quiet it is the night before Christmas
But it seems that carols are already heard
And the boys laughed loudly and cheerfully.
The month in the sky trembled... Smiling,
The prankster devil, invisible to everyone,
He grabbed the luminary, blowing and grimacing:

- Ugh! How hot! - and put the sickle in your pocket.
The blizzard howled. The darkness is impenetrable.
Chub swore that he was going to the clerk for a glass
Was called the other day:
- Damn you!
But I went anyway... And to the mirror, jokingly,
Oksana says with admiration:
- Look,
How good I am!
Chubovo's child was reputed to be the first maiden on Dikanka.

She turned around: “Ah!” - and died:
In the entire doorway is the blacksmith Vakula.
And how ardent are his words!
A blush began to appear on the cheekbones...
– I love you, Oksana! No sweeter!
And I only want to marry you!
- Then get me so that I can become yours,
I want Mother Queen's slippers!
She said it with her friends in a crowd
She carelessly ran away to sing carols.
Vakula is not himself from ridicule
He rushed away from the hut without looking back.

Meanwhile, Solokha, getting dressed up
And furrowed eyebrows, in a colorful shawl
She clinked glasses of vodka with the devil, laughing.
There was a knock on the door...
-Who is he carrying?

– Didn’t you wait?
In the snow, like Santa Claus - Pan Head...
Devil - jump into the bag and sideways to the wall.
Pan barely had time for a glass
Take a sip and extend your palm to your knee...
The clerk sang prayerfully through the window:
- Solokha, open up!
- Where to go?
- In the bag, Mr. Head! (What a fat boar!)
Come in, deacon, let's break our fast!

Then the clerk found shelter in the sack,
And old Chub, Oksana’s strict dad.
Oh yes Solokha! Everyone is on the hook!
Vakula the son grab the bags at once,
And in the cold, in droves! What a strong man!
Only the one where the guest from the underworld cowered,
I decided to open... The tailed one immediately jumps,
May he be pacified by the will of the Lord:

Vakula made the sign of the cross over him.
- Why isn’t my little devil Sivka-Burka?
And having mounted the horned one,
On it I reached St. Petersburg in an instant,
Bypassing the posts, straight to the palace.
- Oh, beauty! - the boy is surprised.
Everything is a storm and a cormorant... - the blacksmith was speechless,
He took off his hat and fell at the feet of the queen.

- Yes, don’t order the execution, mother!
Vakula spoke, his heart sinking.
- But what shoes are you wearing?
The feet of angels from heaven are worthy.
“I appreciate simplicity in people,”
Laughing, the queen speaks favorably.
- And the shoes... they’re already carrying them, I’ll give them as a gift!
I hope that my humble gift is to your heart?

Christmas night... and in the clouds
Flies back, the horned one puffs up,
Carries Vakula...
The royal gift in the dark
Sparkles with stones... Near the hut
The journey is over.
- Go to hell, you devil!
Vine him so that he does not appear in the future!
And the old women are buzzing around the farm:
- Blacksmith Vakula drowned himself out of grief!

What about Oksana? Unrecognizable - pale
Indifferent to outfits and fun,
In love with the missing Vakula
And she sheds tears, and without him she is unhappy!
Here he is with a gift right on the doorstep:
- Give back, Father Chub, your Oksana.
– Vakula, you’re alive... God have mercy!
Do you agree, daughter? I won't argue.

- Here are the slippers - of royal beauty -
The blacksmith handed it to her, rejoicing in his soul.
“I don’t need booties, but you!”
- Yes, turn away, tato, let him kiss you!