Press Conference and exhibition "Pavel Fedotov. The Theatre of Life. In honour of the 200th Anniversary of the artist’s birth."

The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation

The State Tretyakov Gallery

Fedotov Pavel Andreevich — Matchmaking of the major. 1848
Oil on canvas, 58,3 х 75,4. Detail.
Tretyakov Gallery

Pavel Fedotov. The Theatre of Life.
In honour of the 200th Anniversary of the artist’s birth.

Press Conference will take place on 24th February at 16.00
The exhibition will be open from the 25th February to 14th June 2015
at the Engineering Building, 12 Lavrushinsky Lane

Curators: S.S.Stepanova, A.Z.Antonova
Collaborators and Participants: The State Tretyakov Gallery; The Russian Museum; The State Historical Museum; Ivanovo Regional Art Museum
Exhibited Works: Around 40 paintings and 130 graphic works
Exhibition Publications: Album-catalogue; album from the series “The Artist at the State Tretyakov Gallery”

The Aristocrat’s Breakfast. 1849–1850
Oil on canvas, 51 x 42. Tretyakov Gallery

Pavel Andreyevich Fedotov (1815–1852), one of Russia’s most loved and admired artists, was a painter and graphic artist and the author of many well-known works. Fedotov has been called the “Russian Hogarth“, and “Gogol in colour”. He presented the “human comedy” of Russian society of the 1840s, depicting a wide variety of “characters” in numerous “situations”.  The aim of this exhibition, the largest of the season at the State Tretyakov Gallery, is to give a fuller picture of Fedotov’s legacy, and to familiarize the viewer with the man himself and his fate.

The 1830s –1840s witnessed the creative development of the artist. This was a time when Russian art appealed to a broad, democratic audience, and society’s interest in genre art was growing. The satirical sketches of popular magazines were also becoming more and more active, and Fedotov saw himself as a successor to the moralizing art of English artists W. Hogarth and D. Wilkie, and French graphic artists P.Gavarni and J. Grandville. In rendering the subtleties and intricacies of his subjects, the artist modelled himself on the Lesser Dutchmen.

The State Tretyakov Gallery preserves the most significant and valuable of Fedotov’s works. During his lifetime, P.V.Tretyakov himself managed to acquire a unique series of sepia drawings with detailed plot developments and scenes; one of the versions of the painting “Young Widow”; and a series of drawings.  Works from the collections of K.T.Soldatenkov and F.I.Pryanishnikov among others would join the Gallery’s collection later on. While Fedotov’s great canvases (such as “The Major's Betrothal” and “The Aristocrat’s Breakfast”) adorn the museum’s permanent exhibition halls, his graphic works are very rarely exhibited.

The exhibition will open with a section dedicated to Fedotov’s Muscovite roots, presenting a small number of portraits of his relatives and watercolours with views of Moscow. A series of drawings from the collection of the State Russian Museum will also be exhibited for the first time. These recount the birth of the “ingenious artist” in a humorous manner, as their author ironized his own fate which had not heralded an artistic profession. Indeed, ten years of Fedotov’s life were devoted to military service. Having graduated from the Moscow officer training school with distinction, Fedotov joined the privileged Leib Guard of the Finnish Regiment in Saint-Petersburg. Fedotov went to evening classes at the Imperial Academy of Artists from time to time and soon became famous within his circle as a regiment artist. Finishing his service in 1844, Fedotov devoted himself to art which he saw as a means of imparting moral lessons to society.

The central section of the exhibition will present Fedotov’s main genre works: his series of sepia drawings, four paintings and watercolours of a “moral-critical nature”. They introduced genre art into Russian painting with sharp plots and a developed dramaturgy. The paintings were composed according to the rules of the theatre; the actions of the players carefully “staged”. The arrangement of the exhibition emphasizes this aspect of Fedotov’s compositions: the action of the paintings “’Fresh Cavalier’. Morning of a Bureaucrat receiving his first cross”, “The Fastidious Bride”, “The Major’s Betrothal”, and “The Aristocrat’s Breakfast” develops in one zone, reminiscent of a theatre box.

Fedotov’s famous “Young Widow” signified a turning point in the artist’s work, from depicting topical scenes from everyday life to conveying the internal condition and mood of his characters. This change of heart was prompted by a particular event in Fedotov’s personal life: the widowhood of his sister. Work on the canvas turned into a search for a new mode of painting, a metaphorical rather than narrative handling of the subject. The exhibition will present three versions of the painting where the artist modifies his use of colour; changes the character of his heroine and individual details; moves away from the generic character of the scene; and creates a sad elegy.

The artist’s later works testify to his increasing agitation and worsening mental health which would eventually lead to his early death. In these works, Fedotov renounces action and a developed plot line; rather, the paintings are psychological, conveying the artist’s anxiety and emotional disarray. In the preparatory sketches for the painting “Gamblers” for example, the character of the lines and brushstrokes noticeably changes for example. In the painting “Encore! Again, Encore!” the role of chiaroscuro and colour is highlighted. Contours are simplified, forms become more laconic, and the artistic image is borne from the expression of colour and a troubled atmosphere which permeates the canvas.

In a separate part of the exhibition, portraits done by Fedotov will also be displayed. They are considered to be the culmination of the development of the intimate Russian portrait, as the artist set himself the task of depicting his subjects sincerely and openly.

This monographic exhibition demonstrates the diversity of Fedotov’s creative interests, allowing viewers to truly appreciate his art which goes far beyond the limits of irony, satire and critical realism.

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