Anatoly Sidorovich Rozov was a scenic painter, a muralist and an artist. He was born on October 14, 1933, in the village of Torvashi, Tsivilsky District, Chuvash Republic. He graduated from the Cheboksary Art School and the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema. For many years he collaborated with puppet theaters in Cheboksary, Leningrad, and Ryazan and designed dozens of their performances (“Teremok”, “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp”, “The Wizard of the Emerald City”, “Cinderella”, “Sembo”, “White Rose”, “Lop-Eared Ilyuk” and others). The artist also created many monumental and decorative compositions and paintings. The artist’s works include “Chuvash Nursery Rhymes”, “Evening in Torvashi”, “Torva-Sumer Ancestors” and a series of paintings titled “My Village”.
Rozov’s painting stands on two pillars: national coloring and childhood. Rozov sees the world as if through the eyes of a child. The world seems cheerful, bright, warm and wonderful, it is inhabited by large and kind creatures that every village boy meets at some point or another: golden-maned horses, dear nursing cows, swan geese, chickens, and, of course, a cockerel the golden crest. The most important human figures are father and mother who radiate love and care. The world’s borders lie within the hut and then the village, and everything that lies beyond is viewed as mysterious distant lands.
Like most artists who were looking for the national coloring in art, Rozov turns to Konstantin Ivanov’s poem “Narspi”. Its expressive images reflect the life of the people so fully, it seems that the events described could have happened in any Chuvash village. Inspired by this, the artist relocates the setting to a spring in the village of Torvashi, using the colors and words of the poem to glorify his native land. Although the modern style of the girls’ outfits is closer to the times of the artist’s childhood than to the events of “Narspi”, some things still remain unchanged: the crystal water of springs, the bridges and smooth eye-pleasing outlines of ravines, and the peaceful everyday work that brings joy and wellbeing.
Rozov’s painting stands on two pillars: national coloring and childhood. Rozov sees the world as if through the eyes of a child. The world seems cheerful, bright, warm and wonderful, it is inhabited by large and kind creatures that every village boy meets at some point or another: golden-maned horses, dear nursing cows, swan geese, chickens, and, of course, a cockerel the golden crest. The most important human figures are father and mother who radiate love and care. The world’s borders lie within the hut and then the village, and everything that lies beyond is viewed as mysterious distant lands.
Like most artists who were looking for the national coloring in art, Rozov turns to Konstantin Ivanov’s poem “Narspi”. Its expressive images reflect the life of the people so fully, it seems that the events described could have happened in any Chuvash village. Inspired by this, the artist relocates the setting to a spring in the village of Torvashi, using the colors and words of the poem to glorify his native land. Although the modern style of the girls’ outfits is closer to the times of the artist’s childhood than to the events of “Narspi”, some things still remain unchanged: the crystal water of springs, the bridges and smooth eye-pleasing outlines of ravines, and the peaceful everyday work that brings joy and wellbeing.
