Fedot Sychkov painted ‘Garden Strawberries’ in 1910. The strawberry leaves with toothed edges occupy most of the pictorial space. In the center, the painter depicted large red berries lying on the ground. This still life was created en plein air, outdoors, in natural sunlight. Fedot Sychkov painted the juicy strawberries from his own vegetable patch — he grew the berries himself.
On a daily basis, the artist painted homemade strawberries and cucumbers, flower meadows, cut flowers, and rowan tree branches. Gradually, the still-life genre began to fascinate him and became a separate direction in his career.
Such still lifes by Fedot Sychkov contradict the very name of the genre — in French, the term means ‘dead nature’. But the artist’s canvases are so realistic that the word ‘living’ would be more suitable for them. Once, the museum curators even witnessed a touching scene related to the painting ‘Garden Strawberries’: a three-year-old child stood on tiptoe and tried to reach for the berry with his lips.
The master enjoyed gardening throughout his life. In June 1931, Konstantin Veshchilov, an artist, friend and relative of Fedot Sychkov (he was married to the niece of the painter’s wife), wrote to him from France, ‘The weather is great now, we are making jam, wild strawberries the size of a fist, like on your vegetable patches.’
The artist’s family had to devote a lot of time to the vegetable garden in 1917. In his autobiography, Sychkov said,
On a daily basis, the artist painted homemade strawberries and cucumbers, flower meadows, cut flowers, and rowan tree branches. Gradually, the still-life genre began to fascinate him and became a separate direction in his career.
Such still lifes by Fedot Sychkov contradict the very name of the genre — in French, the term means ‘dead nature’. But the artist’s canvases are so realistic that the word ‘living’ would be more suitable for them. Once, the museum curators even witnessed a touching scene related to the painting ‘Garden Strawberries’: a three-year-old child stood on tiptoe and tried to reach for the berry with his lips.
The master enjoyed gardening throughout his life. In June 1931, Konstantin Veshchilov, an artist, friend and relative of Fedot Sychkov (he was married to the niece of the painter’s wife), wrote to him from France, ‘The weather is great now, we are making jam, wild strawberries the size of a fist, like on your vegetable patches.’
The artist’s family had to devote a lot of time to the vegetable garden in 1917. In his autobiography, Sychkov said,
