Bath through the eyes of Russian artists

Foreigners consider the bathhouse to be the main entertainment in Russia. However, for Russians themselves, a bathhouse is a quite common phenomenon, although it is not devoid of its mystery and attractiveness, which is reflected in the paintings of many artists.

7 PHOTOS

1. Kazimir Malevich. In the bath, 1910-11.

The founder of Suprematism and the author of the "Black Square" had his own interpretation of the bath. In this graphite drawing, depicting a simple everyday scene, the artist is already looking for his own style and "plays" with the form, refusing to accurately depict reality.

2. Boris Kustodiev. Russian Venus, 1926.

The name speaks for itself. Kustodiev, the main chronicler of everyday merchant life in Russia, portrayed the ideal of Russian beauty in the representations of the early twentieth century.

3. Alexander Gerasimov. Country bath, 1938.

Stalin's chief artist was the author of such iconic Soviet works as Lenin on the podium, I. V. Stalin, and K. E. Voroshilov in the Kremlin. But he also did "informal" work that reflected his artistic talent. One of them is a supposedly very Soviet genre scene, which takes place in a bathhouse - and yet the figures in it are almost Rubensian.

4. Arkady Plastov. Spring 1954

Naked bodies were practically absent in official Soviet art, so Plastov's painting was a very daring experiment. On a large canvas 210 x 123 cm, a naked girl dresses a child after a bath.

5. Fyodor Samusev. After the bath, 1960.

For many Soviet artists, bath plots were a good opportunity to practice nudity.

6. Alexey and Sergey Tkachevs. In the bath, 1974

The Tkachev brothers wrote a whole series of works dedicated to the bath, both in winter and in summer. They depicted people after a bath, people rubbing themselves with snow or lying in a steam room. This painting depicts the now-classic story of a woman washing a child in a bath.

7. Yuri Penushkin. From the bath, 1975.

As a child, the artist furtively watched as sweating women leave the bath, collect water and come back. Therefore, he describes this mysterious ritual as a real "Russian miracle".