Description of the picture:
Morning in the mountain village – Semen Afanasevich Chuykov. 1967. Oil on canvas. 118×179
On the canvases of Chuikov there are mountain villages and pastures, Kyrgyz shepherds, children, slender dark-skinned women. Kyrgyzstan is the birthplace of Chuikov. Here his childhood passed. Chuikov studied first at the Tashkent Art School, then – in Moscow, in VKHUTEMAS under the leadership of R. R. Falk. His works “The Poor Ail” (1936), “The Hunter with a Golden Eagle” (1938), “An Evening in the Herd” (1938), performed shortly after graduation, attracted with the character of the plots, which reveal the specific nature of Kyrgyzstan, the uniqueness of national life. However, with the closest attention to the daily life of Kyrgyzstan, Chuykov does not become its chronicler. He is not interested in small household details, but in that poetic atmosphere that arises as a result of a person’s constant contact with nature and manifests itself in the whole way of life, behavior and character of people. People with proud posture and smooth movements seem quite natural against the backdrop of majestic nature, bathed in a generous southern sun. Chuikov’s canvases rarely have more than two or three figures, and, as a rule, almost no action. The heroes of his paintings are most often immersed in the contemplation of the environment. The artist especially loves the motives of the early morning or the coming evening, when daytime activities and worries have not yet managed to take over people or are left behind, when nothing violates the harmony of man and nature (“Morning”, 1947, “Evening”, 1948).
This group includes painting “Morning in the mountain village”. In the center of the composition is a Kyrgyz girl. A round little face with a dark complexion and narrow black eyes glows with joy. In the crystal clear morning air, majestic mountain ranges seem to be close, towering against the background of a clear blue sky. Sunlit slopes alternate with deep shady ravines. Bright sparkling colors of the flaring morning are as if saturated with warm sunlight. Color for Chuikov’s works is the most important expressive tool. By color, the artist builds the form, conveys the space, volume, texture of objects and, most importantly, creates an emotional atmosphere."