Picture «Date». The bitter grief

V.E. Makovsky was in the association of the Wanderers, whose ideological inspiration was the critic V.V. Stasov, and material support was provided by patron P. Tretyakov.

The situation in the country during the creation of the painting

At that time, after the peasants were liberated from serfdom, reforms were carried out in all spheres of life in the country. All of them led to the emergence of capitalist relations. The processes were painful for all sectors of society. But they were incomplete, somewhere half-hearted. Therefore, society was divided into two parts: moderately liberal and extremist. The first was represented by the so-called "populists" who made unsuccessful attempts to bring together the intelligentsia and the common people, those who were called "people", but did not consider themselves equal. The "Rendezvous" picture shows the meeting of precisely these so-called "people", with sincere sympathy, so much that you deeply regret them and for a long time you can not forget.

Life of the artist

Makovsky Vladimir Egorovich (1846-1920) was born in Moscow. The intelligent family did not even imagine that Vladimir would later be carried away by genre scenes from the life of the common people and that from under his hand a painful picture "Rendezvous" would come out. In their house there were often Glinka, Gogol, Shchepkin, Bryullov, music and drawing evenings were arranged. Five years V. Makovsky studied at the School of Architecture and Sculpture in Moscow and finished it with the title of artist of the III degree.

Self-seeking

When Makovsky married, he went on living with his family in his father's house and, wherever he could, moonlighted, even with iconography. When his first child was born, Vladimir Egorovich became interested in the lives of children. This happened after 1869. This interest manifested itself in a number of works, among them was the picture "Rendezvous". But before that he will write "Game of Babies", which P. Tretyakov will buy, and this will mean that he was recognized as an artist. The Crimean war will not pass by his attention, since it will occupy the minds of the whole society. The result will be an album with 21 genre pictures from the life of Sevastopol. He practically not only illustrates "Sevastopol stories", but he chooses those moments where people's steadfastness and mutual assistance were most evident.

Peredvizhniki

Artists realized the need to convey their works to a wide range of people and actively began to create a new community that opposed the salon art. Later, at such an exhibition, the picture "Rendezvous" will be presented. But there were not enough pictures and money. Nevertheless, the artists believed in success. The first exhibition was held in 1871. It involved such masters as Perov and Shishkin, Bryullov and Repin, Kramskoy and Polenov.

This is a picture of Makovsky's "Appointment", presented at one of these traveling exhibitions.

A boy of seven or ten is no longer able to feed his family, not what to wear. And from a free life in the countryside they give him to the city, "to people", to work not for money, but for food (this is what the grandfather will do with Alyosha Peshkov later). Do the most dirty work, for which no one else takes. The mud-stained clothes of the boy speaks about it. Mother with deep sorrow and in silence watches with what greed the young son has thrown herself at her hotel. She tilted her head in her hand, and her entire posture expresses immense fatigue from the long road, and the bitterness of how hard it is for a child who still has to run and play, but a hard life makes him work. All this shows the picture of Makovsky's "Rendezvous." Their rare meetings surely end in tears, which the mother hides from her son, and he - from her. Both - and an early-growing boy, and a tired mother over the years, understand that they have no other way out. The woman sits in a dimly lit little room, beyond which no one will let her in, and looks attentively at the child.

We continue the verbal description of the picture of Makovsky's "Rendezvous". The peasant woman is dressed simply, in a country way, in a sheepskin coat and scarf. Apparently, it's winter outside. And my son, despite the cold, stands barefooted. He is very pale, since he does not see the streets. Sad as a mother, and serious. In a dirty little room on the barrel is a jug. From it you can drink a loaf, which the boy eats. Even the description of Makovsky's painting "Rendezvous" conveys hopelessness. At the barrel on the floor is a small mother's knapsack. It is empty, there is nothing to carry in it, since there is no money. The picture is written in dark colors, conveying the whole desolation of the life of the mother and son.

The work conveys both the tragedy and the typicality of this situation for poor people who do not have a livelihood. On this we finish the description of the picture "Rendezvous".