The procession in the Kursk province. Social importance of the picture

For a long time in Russia there was a pious custom to celebrate the days of memory of the most revered miraculous icons by the crosses. Witness one of them in Chuguev in 1877 was I. E. Repin. A bright and impressive spectacle served as the basis for the plot of the painting "The Procession in the Kursk Province." Completely the same idea of the picture took shape after visiting the famous Root Desert. It was there that the cross processions collected the largest number of pilgrims.

"The procession in the Kursk province." Description of the picture

Final work on the painting was completed in 1883. Cloth carries the viewer on a hot summer day. On the dusty road, among the sultry haze, an endless procession of the procession is moving from the depths of the picture. They carry the miracle-working icon to the place where it was once shown to people.

All the details of the painting are written with striking concreteness. It is the sun that is drying up all around, the rays of which seem to be concentrated in the gold of the church vestments, the air filled with dust and the monotonous roar of the crowd moving towards the viewer, and, most importantly, the faces of the participants. In them Repin succeeded, with extraordinary skill, in conveying the consciousness of the significance of the work that they are doing, and at the same time being attached to purely earthly thoughts and passions.

But "The Procession in the Kursk Gubernia" by Repin is not just a genre scene, stating a certain event, it is a gallery of portraits masterfully created by the artist. It depicts representatives of various strata of the society of post-reform Russia. A documentary accurate picture of social stratification and inequality is given.

Painting Repin - criticism of hypocrisy and hypocrisy

Ilya Efimovich belonged to a well-known community of artists, the Wanderers, who adhere to the generally acute social orientation of their works. This category includes the "Cross procession in the Kursk province." However, it should be understood that criticism in this case is not aimed at religion as a whole and not on Orthodox ritualism, as they tried to interpret in the period of the God-fight, but only on the hypocritical and hypocritical expression of religiosity.

"The hosts of life" and the rural poor

In the central part of the picture, deep, bright and satirically depicts a fat landowner with a swaggered and arrogant face who clasped the icon in a businesslike way, and next to her a rough rural headman driving away from his benefactor peasants from all sides. In the work of the artist "The Procession in the Kursk Province," a clear delineation of social groups is presented . On the one hand, the "masters of life" are the landlord herself, and the retinue behind her, and the whole so-called pure public, which constitutes the main part of the procession, on the other hand, is "glitzy", as the lower strata of society are called in Russia, Deprived. They accompany the procession on both sides, being jealous of the salvation of the soul, they also want to bow to the shrine, but they are driven away from it by equestrian gendarmes and inordinately zealous master's servants.

The figure of the beggar-cripple in the foreground of the painting "The Procession in the Kursk Province" is very typical. He, like no other, needs God's help and tries to at least approach the shrine. It can be seen that the hunchback tries with all his might, but the stick of the peasant who has given himself the right to decide who should be near the miraculous and who does not.

Revealing the hypocrisy of the clergy

"The procession in the Kursk province" Repin is also a satire and representatives of church circles, replacing high spiritual ministry with mundane and vain concerns. This is, first of all, a group of priests, following the landowner, who carries the icon, surrounded by a semicircle of an important master and leading servile conversations with him. It is evident from all that all their attention is given to a possible benefactor, and to the miraculous icon they have no business.

Pictures of the social life of society

The picture "The Procession in the Kursk Province" (whose genre, of course, refers to the sharply social), according to general opinion, is the most vivid manifestation of the creative direction of the author. Repin never attracted small, episodic topics. He always took up large-scale subjects, which included diverse scenes of the life of society. An outstanding master, Repin was able to combine in his paintings an acute grotesque with a deep individuality and psychology of his characters.