Artist Vasily Maksimovich Maksimov (1844 – 1911) died at the age of 67 – poor, sick and a heavy drinker. At the beginning of his life he had to overcome many difficulties. But at a certain point it might have seemed to him that life had been a success! His paintings were warmly received at the exhibitions of the Itinerants, Pavel Tretyakov willingly bought them for his collection, newspapers published enthusiastic reviews from critics.

Vasily Maksimov – the son of a peasant, was born in the village of Lopino in the St. Petersburg province. In the entire village, only the Maksimov family was literate – the father himself taught the children to read.

His father died when Vasily was six years old. His mother sent him to school at the monastery. Vasily was 10 years old when his mother, unloading firewood, stood for a long time in icy water – fell ill and died. The boy remained a novice at the monastery. He will remember with gratitude Hieromonk Anthony Bochkov, who introduced him to the works of Gogol, Krylov, Plutarch, and the poems of Pushkin.

When Vasily grew up, his brother took him to St. Petersburg on a cartload of hay, where he entered an icon-painting workshop. He had to run from one workshop to another every now and then – one owner beat him, another burned his books. To earn money, the young man painted portraits of local merchants.

After five years spent in icon-painting workshops, Vasily first became an auditor at the Academy of Arts. Such great artists as Polenov and Repin studied with him. And Repin later recalled that Maximov “was one of the first in the top ten.” Maximov was talented in everything: he sang well, wrote poetry, acted in plays, was fond of etching and wood carving.

In 1863, Maksimov only appeared at the Academy, and in 1864 he already received a gold medal – for the painting “Sick Child”. The plot, alas, was not invented: in the village, before the artist’s eyes, his 10-year-old niece died. The artist copied the faces of the grief-stricken father and mother from his brother and his wife. In order to finish painting the clothes, to depict the folds on them more accurately, he made a doll out of straw and tow – it turned out so realistic that the peasants passing by were frightened and, crossing themselves, greeted her just in case. At that time, the best students were given a pension (maintenance) – and sent on a creative internship in Italy. Maksimov did not go – he preferred to observe Russian life, and paint it. Later, in his correspondence with Tretyakov, the artist noted with some pride that he “did not paint city ladies in silk dresses, uniformed workers and other unfamiliar people and switched forever to village life.”

Maksimov set up a workshop in the village. He made friends with the peasants, who willingly posed for him. The landowners tried unsuccessfully to invite the artist to visit. Only the poor general’s wife Izmailova succeeded. Maksimov paid a visit that he would never regret: he fell in love with the hostess’s daughter. The wedding took place quite soon. The general loved painting, so he did not oppose the wedding of the general’s daughter and the peasant’s son. Lydia Alexandrovna became the artist’s muse – he painted many of his heroines from her.

A number of paintings – “Everything in the Past”, “The Sorcerer at a Village Wedding” (we will look at them below) – made the artist famous and successful. But the last 20 years of his life were spent in depression (he did not want to give up realistic depiction of everyday life in favor of fashionable painting trends), illness, drunkenness and poverty. Back in the eighties – during a trip to his homeland – the artist fell into a hole in the middle of the river and spent a long time in the icy water, leaning on a hunting rifle. He lived the rest of his life with the consequences of this hypothermia. The artist died in November. He was buried in his homeland. And the peasants, whom he painted all his life, paid tribute to him. The sleigh with the coffin had to be transported to the other side of the river, and the thin ice could not support the horses. Then the peasants themselves harnessed themselves to the sled and, feeling the ice with sticks, carefully pulled them. Then they carried the coffin to the cemetery in their hands.