Focus on the subjects in portraits is an obvious aspect of this style of painting. Although in these Russian paintings, I saw that there was a major difference in the painting style of the subject and the setting. The subject(s) have a very real depiction with lots of attention to detail. The detail given almost makes the subject look out of place in the setting due to the difference in style. I found that Karl Briullov’s portraits, “The Rider,” “Portrait of the Poet Alexei Tolstoy in His Youth,” and “Portrait of Maria Bek and Her Daughter,” showed the major difference in his painting style and lighting between the subject and the setting. I found this particularly interesting because Karl Briullov’s portraits are the only portraits with a setting in the background. The other Artist’s portraits have a plain or a very simplistic background.
One painting I found interesting was “Spring, Poland” by Alexei Venetsianov. The peasant is looking at a young child, who I think is the wealthy families child. The child is playing happily and seems to be enjoying life. The gaze of the peasant seems to present envy to the Childs freedom. The line of grass splitting the fields of the working peasant and the grassy area of the child furthers the contrast between the free child and the labored peasant. The painting is depicting the daily life of a peasant but also displaying the peasant’s envy of a free life.
These are very thoughtful points! Two corrections, however: the title is “Spring, Plowland” not “Spring, Poland”! And, although I applaud your creativity in “reading” the dividing line between the child and the peasant woman (and I definitely think that idea of freedom vs. work can still hold!), it is not the case that the baby is the baby of the master’s family. There is no way that the master’s child would be left alone in the middle of a field like that! It is clearly a peasant’s baby, maybe even the child of the woman depicted. Nevertheless, I really like your symbolic reading and close attention to pictorial detail!