Philipp Malyavin painted ‘A Girl with Knitting Needles’ supposedly in the 1910-1920’s. He portrayed a young girl wearing a headscarf and a red pinafore dress, holding knitting needles. The painter did not attempt to accurately reflect the character’s appearance or construct perspective correctly. Instead, he sketched the background using bright paints that he applied in wide strokes. This way he depicted not the realistic image of the person, but her enthusiasm and energy.
A Girl with Knitting Needles
Creation period
Late 1910’s – early 1920’s
Dimensions
93,5x71,5 cm
Technique
Oil on canvas
Collection
Exhibition
63
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Philip Malyavin
A Girl with Knitting Needles
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In the late 1890’s the artist got interested in folklore themes. He often portrayed peasant women that his contemporaries came to call “farm girls”. He painted them in folklore costumes. Malyavin always used deep red color that caught the eye with its intensity. The painter achieved such color brightness using special substances — Venetian turpentine and copal varnish. These materials increased the illumination and intensity of the paint color with which the master mixed them. The secret of this composition was revealed to Malyavin by Igor Grabar.
Malyavin painted his famous “Whirlwind” in 1906 with exactly this paint. Grabar highly praised this work: “The excessive amount of Venetian turpentine that Malyavin used in the bonding agent turned the colorful dough of this painting into the mass that has not yet solidified, that opens in hot summer days and even threatens to start moving. But the paint brightness and brilliance is truly magnificent and leaves far behind the brightness of plain oil paints”.
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Whirlwind, 1906. Source: wikipedia.org
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The “farm girls” in Malayavin’s paintings always came out not only picturesque but monumental. He often painted their figures foreshortened from the bottom up. The characters seemed to loom over the viewer and took all of canvas space. The artist accurately portrayed their faces and often filled the background with just decorative bright brushstrokes resembling an ornament.
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Peasant Women, 1905. Source: wikipedia.org
Philipp Malyavin’s style was at the junction of impressionism and modernism. Researchers even compared his paintings to those of Gustav Klimt. “On paintings resembling mosaic, figurative elements turn into decorative <…> and in Malyavin”s paintings one can trace a similar attitude to the plane”, — wrote Valeria Mordashova, a researcher of his creative work.
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No matter what art trends are ascribed to the artist, most researchers conclude that Malyavin glorified the image of a Russian peasant woman in his work. His paintings of colorful “farm girls” are now displayed in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Musee d’Orsay, the Malmo Museum and many other galleries.
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Yaroslavl Museum of Fine Arts
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A Girl with Knitting Needles
Creation period
Late 1910’s – early 1920’s
Dimensions
93,5x71,5 cm
Technique
Oil on canvas
Collection
Exhibition
63
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