Why is Lie Bin's "The Tracker on the Volga River" called "the miracle of Russian painting"?

Lie Bin is a famous Russian painter in the19th century and one of the representatives of the travelling exhibition school. He created a large number of historical paintings, genre paintings and portraits, and became a pioneer in critical realism. Lie Bin likes sketching very much. One day, he asked two good friends to sketch by the river. When he was drawing a picture, he saw a figure moving slowly. When he approached, he found a group of tired trackers pulling the boat-the cruel sight in front of him deeply stimulated Lie Bin.

If Lie Bin were a journalist instead of a painter, he would take out his camera and take this photo. There is no doubt that this photo will win a Pulitzer Prize.

However, Lie Bin has only one brush in his hand. Lie Bin began to collect relevant materials. In order to deepen the tracker's life, Lie Bin lived in a village near the Volga River for a whole summer in the summer of 1870. He met the tracker and became friends with them.

In the tracker's camp, we cook in pots, eat humble food and communicate with each other's lives. Lie Bin carefully recorded the tracker's different experiences and images, and tried to penetrate their spiritual world.

Deconstruct the picture and see who is in it.

If you can take a few minutes to read every part of this painting carefully, you will naturally find it shocking-eleven people with different identities, looks and ages are tied together by a thick rope. The pictures and characters are so real that you can hear the heavy breathing of the tracker in the painting because he is too tired. In fact, these characters really exist. According to Lie Bin's records, we can divide this painting into three groups. ?

The leader is Gunning, with deep eyes and protruding forehead, about forty or fifty years old. He used to be a priest, but he was later dismissed by the church. He is a typical image of Russian peasant elders. He suffers from both physical and mental torture, and is the tragic protagonist in these trackers' images.

On his right is a peasant man, barefoot, with thick hair and a big figure, with his head down, as if muttering something to the people next to him.

Behind Gunning is a thin middle-aged man, about 40 years old. He stood up straight, trying to loosen the rope and save himself some strength.

The man on the left of the middle-aged man is called Hicar. He used to be an all-around sailor, but now he can only pull a rope on the beach. With stern eyes and fixed eyes, he looks like a tough guy with a stubborn temper. His coat is full of holes and his strong shoulders are exposed.

The most striking boy in the middle of the picture is Larikka. He is still wearing a pink shirt and tattered trousers, and his skin is not tanned, as if he had just joined the team. His thin body can hardly bear such a weight, and he feels very rebellious at the thought that he will suffer like this for a long time. The teenager looked at the distance, wondering if he was secretly planning something while being lazy at this moment.

Larikka was followed by a bald old man with dark skin and a gloomy face. He leaned on the string, opened his pipe and wanted to have a rest and smoke a cigarette. In color, it is in sharp contrast with the boy in the pink coat in front.

The patient on the right side of the teenager looks weaker than the teenager. He walked with difficulty, wiped his sweat with his cuffs and was weak all over. It seems that overload has exhausted him.

Between Larikka and the old man, another tracker's head was exposed. This man has a dark face, nostrils outward and thick lips. It is said that he is a Tatar.

There are also four people in the middle group.

In terms of composition, Lie Bin skillfully used the topography of the beach and the turning point of the river bend to create a raised yellow base, on which 1 1 the tracker stood, like a group of carved images. Visually, the picture is very flat, and the character's sense of oppression is more prominent. Thanks to Lie Bin's ingenious composition, this small painting has a magnificent effect.

Not to mention, in today's Volga River, an identical statue has really been erected.

It is not unreasonable that the tracker on the Volga River is called "the miracle of Russian painting".

As soon as this painting came out, it participated in the international exposition held in Vienna in 1873, which shocked the international painting world. Commenting on this painting, critic Stasov said ... Lie Bin is an excellent and powerful artist and thinker in terms of the layout and performance of the painting.

The democracy and popularity of art advocated by the roving exhibition school represented by this painting had a strong influence on the art education in China at that time. In a very official sentence, it was "adapted to the ideological and cultural needs of society and people at that time".

Lu Xun, Xu Beihong and others became interested in Russian realistic art, and vigorously promoted the works of roving painters, thus forming a wave of chasing the Soviet Union in China.

Lu Xun published nine prints before his death, four of which were Soviet prints: Selected Paintings of New Russia, Collection of Jade Attractions, Collection of Soviet Prints, and Hundred Pictures of the Dead.

This painting has high artistic value and social value, so it is no wonder that it can be selected as a textbook for primary school students. Perhaps educators hope that children can see a world different from a greenhouse through this painting. ?