This is a sad and sad picture, in my opinion. Children are being exploited here! They can’t play on the computer or anything...
The picture is dark in color, despite the white snow. Only the outlines of houses are visible. High fences.
B - children! Eight to ten years old. Two boys and even a girl. They are pulling a huge barrel. It must be with water... Judging by the ice drops. The barrel is bigger than themselves! Wooden, pot-bellied. They drag her on something like a sled. It’s still hard for them, of course. Climbing uphill. And it’s clear from the children’s faces and postures how they are suffering. They look poor and thin.
By the way, there are several more people behind them. One is just a dark silhouette in a sheepskin coat. He goes in the other direction, that is, he didn’t even think about helping the children. The second is another boy, whose face is not visible. He pushes the barrel with all his might.
The tallest boy is in the center. He's wearing a beige sheepskin coat. Cold for such a winter. And he is tied up with some kind of belts and ropes. The scarf around my neck looks like a torn rag, terrible. It is noticeable from his face that every movement is difficult for him.
On the right is a girl. She not only drags a barrel, but also some kind of bucket over her shoulder. She is wearing (under a sheepskin coat) a pink dress with white polka dots. It is only slightly torn at the edge... A scarf is tied on the head. (The boys have caps.) She walks like a zombie. Eyes closed. She shouldn't faint!
On the left is a boy in black. You can see from his arched back that he is making a tremendous effort to pull the barrel. One sleeve weighs to the ground. It seems that the boy is already falling.
There is also a dog on the left. She is simple - without a breed, without a collar... She has her teeth bared slightly and runs. It feels like it’s hard for her too. She apparently takes on the burden that her little owners feel. They are all pale, if only the blush is from the frosty wind.
They have boots on their feet. After all, the children are not completely poor, but how hard they work to achieve this! They are ruining their health!
Behind them the church can be seen in the distance. She is covered with snow... In general, a sad picture.
About the history of the canvas
An essay on the painting “Troika” should be written after reading a short biography of its author, Vasily Grigorievich Perov (1834-1882). His works reflected portraits, city landscapes, compositions on everyday, religious, and historical themes. The painting in question was painted in 1866 and addressed the issue of the hard work of ordinary children in Tsarist Russia. In 1867 it was demonstrated at an exhibition in Paris.
Over the course of seven months, the exhibition was visited by almost nine million people, many of whom were emigrants, tourists and art connoisseurs. Russian Emperor Alexander II was also present at the exhibition. It is unknown what feelings he experienced at the sight of peasant children. However, until the revolution of 1917, the life of poor children was hungry and difficult. Currently, the original painting is exhibited in the Tretyakov Art Gallery.
The children get acquainted with the picture in a literature or social studies lesson on the topic “Man and his activities.” The hard work of the children cannot leave schoolchildren indifferent. After familiarizing themselves with the canvas, they should be able to answer the following textbook questions:
- What can you say about the guys’ activities?
- Are they busy with their own business (student opinion)?
- What feelings did the picture evoke and why?
The answers can become the basis of creative work. It is important to remember that in Perov’s time, peasant children pulling a barrel of water were as common as children in a sandbox today. The year in which the picture was painted was very difficult and in many ways tragic for the country. 5 years have passed since the abolition of serfdom, but the document was observed only formally.
In essence, the serfs remained dependent and barely made ends meet. Artists tried to reflect the theme of people's suffering in their work. People who were not indifferent to the fate of others helped the poor. However, no one could eradicate child labor. Hungry children did not have the opportunity to study, grew up early and began working as apprentices and on errands.
Perov loved childhood themes. In his works, he reflected the life of ordinary children, and not the offspring of nobles and townspeople. By showing a convict childhood, he tried to attract the public to the common problem of exploitation of younger children and teenagers.
Perov V.G. “Troika” (“Workshop apprentices carrying water”)
Hall 17
Vasily Perov’s painting “Troika” will not leave any viewer indifferent. Pity and compassion, indignation at injustice and the inability to somehow help children - these feelings will be experienced by any person who sees the picture.
In Perov’s canvas we see a girl and two boys, exhausted with all their strength, carrying a barrel of water. The wind blows through their shabby clothes. Frost, spilled water immediately turns into icicles. A compassionate passer-by helps children overcome a hillock covered with a crust of ice. A dog runs ahead, but it doesn’t add joy to what’s happening. The picture is painted in gray-brown tones, thereby the author wanted to convey the dullness and baseness of that soulless time.
The painting was painted in 1866, and although by this time serfdom had already been abolished, the situation of the peasants remained disastrous. Most of them lived in poverty, starved, and child labor was used everywhere.
The title of the work “Troika” evokes the idea of three horses and involuntarily adds drama to the picture. Indeed, three emaciated children, harnessed to a cart, like three horses, are doing hard, backbreaking physical work in terrible conditions.
Another title of the painting is “Workshop Apprentices Carrying Water.” Sending children to the city, to a craftsman, was considered a great success. But often the artisans loaded the children with backbreaking work. This is precisely the case that the artist depicted.
Vasily Perov selected his sitters very carefully. Perov found the girl and boy depicted from the edge immediately. But he had to look for a long time for the boy drawn in the center of the composition.
One day he met a woman with a 10-12 year old son who was suitable for a painting that the artist had already half painted. The woman's name was Marya, she said that her husband and all the children, except Vasya, had died and all her hope was only in her only remaining child. With the mother's permission, the artist depicted the boy in the center of the composition.
A few years later, Marya found Perov and told him that Vasya had fallen ill and died. She sold everything she had and collected some money. Marya begged the artist to sell her the painting.
By that time, the painting was in the Tretyakov Gallery and it was impossible to buy it back. In memory of his son, Vasily Perov painted a portrait of Vasya for his mother.
With his painting “Troika,” Vasily Perov draws public attention to the fate of disadvantaged children and raises the issue of inequality, lack of rights and poverty of peasants.
Getting to know the painting
The description of the painting “Troika” should be carried out after familiarization with the situation depicted by the artist . An early winter morning has arrived, which strikes you with its grayness and hopelessness. The city is just freeing itself from the shackles of sleep, and along the snow-covered street three children are pulling a large barrel. They were woken up before dawn and sent for water. It spills out of the barrel, gets on your clothes and quickly freezes. This brings additional suffering to exhausted children.
In the picture there are three children aged 8-12 years. Their exhausted faces reflect all the hardships inherent in the work of apprentice craftsmen. The chilly wind blows out the threadbare clothes. The boy on the left is having a particularly hard time. Perhaps he is not feeling well due to a cold or is seriously ill. In those days, infant mortality from consumption caused by frost and high humidity was not uncommon.
From behind, an adult helps the children by pushing a barrel. A mongrel runs ahead. It is obvious that she knows the children and wants to support them. She grins at the twilight morning, the piercing cold and snow under her feet, as if she wants to protect her friends from difficulties and hardships.
The landscape surrounding the “troika” is depressing with its hopelessness and dullness. The monastery walls and the silhouette of a man helping children roll a barrel are depicted in a fuzzy and blurry way. The gloomy colors of the canvas are accentuated by black birds in the background. Perhaps these are crows. Their screams and the ringing of bells are the only thing that accompanies the children on a dull gray morning.
Branches scattered as if after a storm, gray snow, exhausted faces - all this creates a feeling of doom and hopelessness, which the artist conveys well. “Troika” is a document of its era, capable of telling about the crimes of people who should protect children, and telling about the terrible consequences of the abolition of serfdom.
Description of the painting “Troika” by V. Perov
What is associated with the “troika” in the domestic understanding? Most likely, folk songs about a troika of fast horses, epics about three heroes or a dashing troika of good fellows. Painting "Troika"
V. Perova overturns all conceivable and inconceivable stereotypes of this word. “Apprentice craftsmen are carrying water” - this is the terse remark of the artist himself, which makes every person shudder at the thought that someone could use child labor. And then, in Perov’s time, boys and a girl harnessed to a sleigh, dragging a huge icy barrel, were the same norm as children of their age playing in the sandbox in our time.
The year 1866 was difficult and tragic for Russia. Six years have passed since the abolition of serfdom, and this fact gave people freedom only formally. In fact, they were free only on paper, and not in reality. Many were thinking about how to feed their families and simply survive in widespread poverty. Artists, meanwhile, tried as best they could to convey the theme of people's suffering to those who were not indifferent to the fate of others. The most important idea was the exploitation of minors, because, according to statistics of that time, child mortality was simply prohibitive.
Perov loved the theme of childhood, and he painted not the offspring of nobles and bourgeois, but the children of the poor classes, who at that time worked as “students”. Brutal treatment, a convict childhood – that’s what the artist tried to show.
The frosty morning has just arrived, the city is still sleeping in the gray fog, and three children are being driven along a snow-covered street, even dragging a huge barrel. They were not too lazy to raise them and send them for water. Exhausted, tired faces, clothes that have long since turned into rags, further reflect the injustice of life at that time. The dank wind blows the children's shabby clothes, and the boy on the left side seems about to fall from its gusts. The water that pours out of the barrel turns into icicles and falls on the “students.” This is where the most common cause of death among children comes from – consumption – from cold, moisture and frost.
There is also justice in the world of “Troika” - some person helps them by pushing a barrel, and the little dog running next to them seems to want to provide them with support.
Look at the color palette of the canvas - there is not a single bright shade, only gloomy gray-brown shadows, even mouse-colored snow, and a deserted street covered with ice only intensifies the situation. The life of children is the same – gray and hopeless. What could be worse than when the work of a child is equated to the service of horses? Perhaps only infant mortality as a result of such work, because there was no talk of any “Conventions on the Rights of the Child” or social services at that time. The generation that must go into the future was left only with the hopelessness of existence and the pity of those around them.
Such doom is quite real not only for the reflection in the picture, but also for its history. The artist never found any child sitters until chance brought him together with the boy Vasya, depicted in the middle of the group. He died a few years after the painting was painted. His mother sold everything and went to Perov to ask for a canvas to “look at Vasenka.” At that time, it had already become the property of Tretyakov, but the artist drew the child from memory and gave the painting to the grief-stricken woman.
Turning to the figures of the Troika, it is worth saying that Vasya bears the most important semantic load, the other children only complement him. He is not only the eldest, but also a leader who does not give himself a reason to show that he is tired. He must be an example for his younger comrades, so overcoming pain and cold, the boy drags the barrel. He raised his head and directed it into the distance - a typical gesture of a person who bears an unbearable weight. The look of this child is striking - it strangely combines hopelessness and faith in the best, which, in fact, cannot exist together.
The only girl in the team involuntarily makes you think about her future. Will this “draft force” be able to live life in the future and become a beloved wife and mother? And will this little girl in an open sheepskin coat and a washed-out skirt even be able to become a mother, doing inhuman work? Her eyes are half-closed, but they express so much pain and anguish that she seems fragile and weightless. Heavy boots, rough and masculine, prevent the baby from falling under the gusts of wind.
The youngest child is the boy on the far left. He no longer has the strength, he threw back his head with a thin pale neck and rolled his eyes. This child is no longer alive, although he is trying to pull the cart.
These guys have never had a childhood, they don’t even know what it is. Their eyes have already lost the ability to look at the world with surprise and joy, and their clothes, which are several sizes too big, make it clear that they will remain among those millions of children who will never be able to get out of poverty.
The landscape surrounding the Troika can hardly be called dull - it is simply hopeless. A deserted street with a monastery wall, a man wrapped in a fur coat who helps children is depicted in fuzzy and foggy strokes. This seems to emphasize the children’s consciousness, where only a barrel is fixed, which needs to be dragged, and at the cost of one’s own life.
The dog that runs next to them is not just a companion or playmate. He grins at the twilight morning, the cold and slippery snow, as if he is trying to protect the children from all the hardships and difficulties. The dog seems to be protecting Troika from universal evil, but this is practically beyond his power.
The darkest, most inexpressive colors of the canvas are only accentuated by the flying black birds in the background. For some reason they resemble crows and do not evoke the best associations.
Scattered branches, icy sleighs, dirty snow, tortured children - these are just some of the details that give the picture doom and hopelessness. “Troika” by V. Perov can hardly be called a work of art worthy of the Tretyakov Gallery. It, like a document of that time, talks about the exploitation of children by those who should protect them: it evokes fear of how many lost and trampled destinies remained after the abolition of serfdom.
Tips for schoolchildren when writing an essay
When describing Perov’s painting “Troika,” one cannot help but draw attention to the heavy exploitation of child labor. In 1866, people did not yet know cars. Horses helped them move, the optimal number of which in a cart was three. The horse in the center was called the horseman, and the animals on the sides were called the jurors. There is a special harness in Perov’s film. Here they decided to save money on horses and harnessed children (artisan apprentices with an unenviable fate) to the cart.
When preparing for an essay on the painting, children should become familiar with the life of ordinary people in the second half of the 19th century. Historical sources, Wikipedia, as well as the works of A. P. Chekhov “Vanka”, N. A. Nekrasov “The Cry of Children” and D. V. Grigorovich “The Gutta-percha Boy” will help with this. Answers to the following questions will help you cope well with your literary work:
- What thoughts and feelings did the picture evoke?
- What is the reason why Perov reflected a difficult life situation on the canvas?
- What season is it on the canvas?
- How did the author portray the children, what do their faces express?
- Who helps children in their difficult work?
- What shades of paint predominate on the canvas, why did the master decide this?
- Does the grayness of a winter morning influence the overall impression that arises when looking at the canvas?
- What does the picture tell about, what thoughts does it suggest?
Words used
Spelling preparation, the ability to select synonyms, and use means of expression will help you write an excellent paper. The more deeply a student studies the character of the era that the artist wanted to depict, the more reliably and deeply he will be able to convey his attitude towards the picture in his literary work . When describing characters and events, you can use the following hint:
- the faces of the children - tired, tired, half-asleep, suffering, kind and gentle, but exhausted;
- clothes - shabby, torn, from someone else's shoulder;
- the road is dirty, slippery, difficult, snowy;
- the barrel is heavy, icy, huge, dirty;
- the walls of the monastery (fortress) are gloomy, stone, inhospitable, harsh;
- a retreating passer-by is inattentive, merciless;
- assistant - a passerby who really wants to help the guys, but he is too weak;
- dog - angry, free;
- birds - flying away, anxious.
Brief plan
Preliminary preparation for work includes writing a plan. When following it, the student can describe the picture in as much detail as possible and express his attitude towards it. The following items should be included:
- The time of year in the picture, the weather, the burden of the children. — The peak of winter and an exorbitant burden (an icy barrel).
- What can you say about the guys, their mood, who helps them? — There is suffering on their faces, a passer-by is trying to help (you can come up with a name for him - Grigory, Ivan or any other).
- What does the canvas make you think about? How does it make children feel? — About what a difficult childhood their peers had a century and a half ago.
After describing the painting “Troika” by Perov and drawing up a plan, you can begin to work on the work. In a message to a sixth grader, it is important to briefly express your attitude to the picture, follow the rules of punctuation and not make overly complex sentences.
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