Ivan Gorokhov painted the painting ‘At the bedside of a convalescent, ” in 1886. He portrayed two friends inside of a bourgeois apartment. One is laying down on a bed leaning upwards on a pillow. The second person is reading a book aloud and sitting on a chair. There are a variety of vials and bottles on the table to imply illness.
Ivan Gorokhov drew both figures using the same girl, his bride. In his diary he affectionately called her Vera. The artist asked Vera to pose sitting on a chair in a light dress and pretend to be sick.
The artist prepared this canvas for the Moscow school of painting, sculpture and architecture as his thesis. The school issued grants to create this painting. The size of the grants was contingent on the sketches and decided by teachers. The artist had to consider the type of setting for the painting, find models, and purchase the materials. In his diary, he pondered the question: ‘What could I paint in my small room or even in Lyudmila Anatolyevna’s apartment? ’ Curiously enough, in this memo the artist confused the patronymic of his future mother in law — her full name was Lyudmila Antonovna Pestrova. He lived in her house in his final years of study. In the artist’s diary, he answered his own question: ‘Only a genre of bourgeois life. Consider the situation with L.A. and the model Vera. I took the simplest setting <…> A working class setting, with a cat, and knitted napkins.’
Ivan Gorokhov wanted to show that such a picture can connect with the audience no less than historical settings. He excitedly began working on it. The artist asked the landlord to give him the biggest room. He arranged a few things in the corner: set a bed, a table with a few appropriate items, and a stool with bottles. The artist said that the wall ’… had to have the wallpaper coated over other wallpaper, which, by the way, was changed 3 times. Even Vera’s dress was changed 3 times, who posed for me in the picture. Then it was modified, and finally it was sewn from a fabric of my choice. It’s possible to draw a life drawing, and because I desired it, I drew the whole model to completely satisfy myself.’
The artist received a big silver medal for this painting. For a local from a peasant family this was a great achievement. Ivan Gorokhov was born in a village near Mozhaysk. His father, who was previously a servant actively pursued a path towards literacy. The man noticed his son’s passion for art, and did everything so that the boy not only read a lot, but also painted. Ivan Gorokhov’s talents were so undeniably good that a local landowner helped send the teenager to Moscow. The young man was admitted to the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture without having to take exams.
In 1886, Ivan Gorokhov presented this picture to the teachers and graduated from the school with excellent marks. Later he participated in exhibitions hosted by the Itinerants. His later works were mainly small genre paintings about village life.
