Working on his series of paintings In the Years of War, Mother and Seeing off the Partisan Detachment, Nikolai Sysoev was searching for the image of the Soviet woman, through which the traits of courage, maternal love and duty to the Motherland could be combined and conveyed. His started his search for the perfect image among the residents of the Vyshnevolotsky District of Kalinin Region.
It was here where Sysoev and his wife settled in a village house, not far from the Akademicheskaya Dacha creative centre of the Union of Artists of Russia. It didn’t take long for the artist to become friends with the villagers, and many agreed to pose for sketches. In an interview for Andrei Podshivalov’s TV Artist project, Sysoev recalled: ‘I became friends with the locals, and everybody was happy to pose for me. “Nikolai Alexandrovich, ” they would say, “you”re the only person we will agree to pose for, because we know that you will capture true images of us in your portraits.”’
The artist came across many elderly women with different appearances, but he could not find the image he was looking for. Luck finally smiled upon him when he realized that the landlady of his lodgings, Fyokla Fedorova was exactly what he had been looking for. He went on to use her image in the cycle of paintings.
Sysoyev conceived of the series In the Years of War in 1965 after reading the true story of an old woman who had saved the life of a wounded partisan commander during the Second World War in the Pravda newspaper. The woman nursed the commander back to life, effectively becoming a second mother to him. ‘I was deeply touched by the story, so I decided to produce a cycle of paintings (three canvases) on this topic, ’ the artist wrote in his memoirs.
Sysoyev spent ten years researching the series, collecting and developing the necessary materials. He started preparatory drawings in 1967, but it was only in 1977–1980 that the actual painting work was done. ‘I never get down to work until I have gathered a lot of sketches for the picture, ” Sysoyev explained in the interview for TV Artist.
Sysoev had his own principles of painting. He would never include elements in his works that had been invented and were not true. Everything had to be verified by nature and portrayed truthfully. After all, it is the essence of realistic painting: to convey a familiar object, an interesting story, or in this case to tell a true story in an honest, intimate and understandable way.
It was here where Sysoev and his wife settled in a village house, not far from the Akademicheskaya Dacha creative centre of the Union of Artists of Russia. It didn’t take long for the artist to become friends with the villagers, and many agreed to pose for sketches. In an interview for Andrei Podshivalov’s TV Artist project, Sysoev recalled: ‘I became friends with the locals, and everybody was happy to pose for me. “Nikolai Alexandrovich, ” they would say, “you”re the only person we will agree to pose for, because we know that you will capture true images of us in your portraits.”’
The artist came across many elderly women with different appearances, but he could not find the image he was looking for. Luck finally smiled upon him when he realized that the landlady of his lodgings, Fyokla Fedorova was exactly what he had been looking for. He went on to use her image in the cycle of paintings.
Sysoyev conceived of the series In the Years of War in 1965 after reading the true story of an old woman who had saved the life of a wounded partisan commander during the Second World War in the Pravda newspaper. The woman nursed the commander back to life, effectively becoming a second mother to him. ‘I was deeply touched by the story, so I decided to produce a cycle of paintings (three canvases) on this topic, ’ the artist wrote in his memoirs.
Sysoyev spent ten years researching the series, collecting and developing the necessary materials. He started preparatory drawings in 1967, but it was only in 1977–1980 that the actual painting work was done. ‘I never get down to work until I have gathered a lot of sketches for the picture, ” Sysoyev explained in the interview for TV Artist.
Sysoev had his own principles of painting. He would never include elements in his works that had been invented and were not true. Everything had to be verified by nature and portrayed truthfully. After all, it is the essence of realistic painting: to convey a familiar object, an interesting story, or in this case to tell a true story in an honest, intimate and understandable way.
