"Sopernitsy"

[Lauren Leighton]

Dear Seelangers: Can someone please tell me something about Nikolai
Kasatkin's genre painting "Sopernitsy" (1890)? The painting depicts a gray
morning in a village following a heavy snowfall. Two young women in the
foreground walk together toward the viewer. They are having a discussion,
and the object of their discussion is a young man with a concertina
(garmonika) standing by a gate back to the right. Histories of art speak
only of the "beauty of nature" and the "natural life" of Russian villages.
But I wonder if there is not more to the painting, namely that it is an
illustration to a Russian literary work, or at least a genre painting a
propos. Thank you.

Lauren G. Leighton
12 Oak Grove Drive
Madison WI 53717
608 836-6947
laurengl at ptwi.net

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