“Portrait of a Mother” was created in 1898, at that time Fedot Sychkov was studying at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He did not create the painting during live posing sessions, rather he based it on sketches he made back in Kochelayevo. One of them is housed in the museum collection.
In the center of the composition sits an elderly woman. The artist specifically highlighted her overworked hands and tired, heavy look in her eyes. The slightly hunched posture conveys a sense of being humiliated, crushed by life — all that the artist experienced himself in childhood when he would “beg from door to door” with his mother or sister Daria, asking for alms.
During the years when he was working on the portrait, Fedot Sychkov was enrolled in a battle painting class of famous Russian artists of the second half of the 19th century: Pavel Kovalevsky and Nikolai Kuznetsov. But military scenes are rare in his art: this was not in accord with his spiritual inclination. He was much more interested in working on creating truthful paintings about the life of the ordinary people. In this endeavor, he was close to Peredvizhniki (a group of Russian realist artists in the 19th-century). Peredvizhniki, among whom were Ilya Repin, Vasily Perov and others, demonstrated a special compassion for the fate of the people, their pain and poverty.
Like many young artists of that time, Fedot Sychkov dreamed of studying under the mentorship of Ilya Repin. They even knew each other through a patron of the arts, General Ivan Arapov. It is known that the student often spoke with Repin: during his studies at the Academy, he would ask for his advice.
The artist devoted many pages in his diaries to Repin — they are written in small script in a small notebook with a buckram hard cover, which is now housed in the museum archive.
In the center of the composition sits an elderly woman. The artist specifically highlighted her overworked hands and tired, heavy look in her eyes. The slightly hunched posture conveys a sense of being humiliated, crushed by life — all that the artist experienced himself in childhood when he would “beg from door to door” with his mother or sister Daria, asking for alms.
During the years when he was working on the portrait, Fedot Sychkov was enrolled in a battle painting class of famous Russian artists of the second half of the 19th century: Pavel Kovalevsky and Nikolai Kuznetsov. But military scenes are rare in his art: this was not in accord with his spiritual inclination. He was much more interested in working on creating truthful paintings about the life of the ordinary people. In this endeavor, he was close to Peredvizhniki (a group of Russian realist artists in the 19th-century). Peredvizhniki, among whom were Ilya Repin, Vasily Perov and others, demonstrated a special compassion for the fate of the people, their pain and poverty.
Like many young artists of that time, Fedot Sychkov dreamed of studying under the mentorship of Ilya Repin. They even knew each other through a patron of the arts, General Ivan Arapov. It is known that the student often spoke with Repin: during his studies at the Academy, he would ask for his advice.
The artist devoted many pages in his diaries to Repin — they are written in small script in a small notebook with a buckram hard cover, which is now housed in the museum archive.
