Painting Preference by Viktor Vasnetsov is the last realistic work before the beginning of the era of fairy tales

“Preference” – a painting by Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov, created in 1879. On the work, the author depicted five men while away the summer night playing cards. Two guests and the owner of the house are sitting at the table. The features of their faces are devoid of charm: an earthy color, sagging skin, a greedy gleam in their eyes. Another guest yawns openly. A fifth man is standing, knocking a glass of alcohol into his mouth. His pose looks like a caricature of a graceful female figure on a chimney bas-relief. Above the table hangs a portrait of a lovely girl, looking at the players with cold indifference. The calm beauty of her appearance contrasts sharply with the self-satisfied, sly expression on the face of the owner, sitting right under the portrait.

Thus, the painter emphasizes the earthiness and prosaic nature of the men gathered in the room. The whole atmosphere of the room is filled with boredom. Players seem to be frozen, stuck in a daily mindless routine. The only dynamic object on the canvas is a clock dispassionately counting down wasted time.

Name of the painting: “Preference”.
Author: Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848-1926).
Year of writing: 1879
Size: 84 x 136 cm.
Style: Realism.
Genre: Household.
Technique: Oil painting.
Material: Canvas.

Location: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov – Russian painter who worked at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries

He began his career inspired by the values ​​of the Wanderers and wrote many realistic works on everyday topics. The painting “Preference” was the last in this genre, after which the artist, as if disillusioned with the surrounding reality, switched to folklore subjects.

“Preference” Vasnetsov began to write in St. Petersburg, and finished already in Moscow. He even attended several meetings of gamblers, but was dissatisfied with the types he saw: Moscow preference players seemed too small and fussy to the master. It took the painter almost a year to complete the painting and present it at the seventh exhibition of the Wanderers.

The painting “Preference” by Viktor Vasnetsov is a demonstration of the character traits and vices of a separate layer of Russian society of the 19th century, in which historical authenticity is harmoniously combined with a certain caricature of the characters. Currently, the work is in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery.