Fedot Sychkov. Difficult transition.1900-1910

Nowadays, few people are familiar with the work of the most original artist Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov. And in the 1910s, his works were successful not only at exhibitions in Russia, but also at the Paris Salon, where they were eagerly bought up by art lovers who showed interest in the life and art of our country.

Peasant girls and young ladies F.V. Sychkov’s works were close in popularity to the hawthorns of Konstantin Makovsky, although the lives and paths to art of the artists were polar different.

Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov was born on March 1, 1870 into a poor peasant family in the village of Kochelaevo, Penza province. His father spent his youth working as waste workers and was a barge hauler for many years. As a child, Fedot himself had to walk with his mother with a bag, which is why his peers teased him as a beggar.

Even then, the future painter decided to learn something useful in order to earn a living. Little Fedot wanted to study, but his mother was against it. It was only thanks to the insistence of his grandmother that eight-year-old Fedot was sent to study at a three-year zemstvo school. There, teacher P.E. Dyumayev drew attention to the boy’s artistic inclinations and tried to develop them, passing on to him basic knowledge in the field of drawing and painting.

The artist's mother Anna Ivanovna Sychkova. 1898
Portrait created in best traditions democratic artists. In the silhouette of a small, slightly hunched figure, one feels oppressed by life. This aching note develops in a color scheme maintained in a gray-black monochrome palette.

After graduating from school, Sychkov went to work in the Saratov province and stopped in the city of Serdobsk, where he worked in the icon painting artel of D.A. Reshetnikov.
In 1892, he went to St. Petersburg, to the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts with the support of General I. A. Arapov (1844-1913), who drew attention to the talented young artist-self-taught. In 1895, F. Sychkov graduated from the Drawing School and became a volunteer student at the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts. After graduation, the artist returned to his homeland.

main topic the artist - the life of peasants, rural holidays.
Since 1960 in the Mordovian Republican Museum fine arts named after S. D. Erzya there is a permanent exhibition of his works (the funds of this museum contain the most large collection picturesque and graphic works Sychkov - about 600 works, including studies and sketches).

In 1970, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding painter, an order was issued by the Ministry of Culture of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to open in the artist’s homeland memorial museum. The house-museum of F.V. Sychkov was opened on March 11, 1970 in the village. Kochelaev after some reconstruction of the premises.

Folk festivals, mountain skiing, weddings, gatherings - this is not a complete range of themes and motifs that attracted the master. He managed to convey in his paintings the simple-minded amusements of villagers.

The paintings are painted easily and freely with the true skill of a genre artist. Brightness attracts them portrait characteristics characters, the ability to plastically accurately arrange multi-figure compositions, to find expressive poses and gestures that give special emotional openness to the images.

In parallel with the main line dedicated to the life and everyday life of the peasantry, a second line developed in Sychkov’s work in the 1900s - this line is associated with a ceremonial commissioned portrait.

Portrait in black. Portrait of Lydia Vasilievna Sychkova, the Artist’s Wife. 1904
The portrait reveals wealth inner world women, dreaminess, enlightened sadness, echoing in their tonality the images of Chekhov’s heroines. Lidia Vasilievna Ankudinova, an elegant, fragile St. Petersburg young lady, became the artist’s real muse. The role of this woman in the fate of F.V. Sychkova was significant and invaluable.

In 1903, she became the artist’s wife, sharing with him all the joys and sorrows for the rest of her life. She lived with him in the village of Kochelaevo, in the Mordovian outback, attended exhibitions, and was aware of all the events of artistic life. She was respected and appreciated by many artists - friends of F.V. Sychkova.

Children's portraits became an interesting page in the artist's work. He first turned to them in the 900s, except for a few student sketches, where children posed for him as models. Both painted and watercolor portraits of children show the author’s serious and deep understanding of the child’s soul.

He tirelessly painted his native village, the rickety fences, the huts that had grown into the ground, and the spring floods of full-flowing Moksha. The small winter sketches, designed in grey-bluish tones, are imbued with intimacy and warmth of mood.
The landscapes are based on a deep poetic feeling, the master’s admiration for the exciting beauty of Russian nature in its modest charm.

Sychkov wrote: “I have a lot of last years I did it, depicting Mordovian life, but how could it be otherwise, because I turned out to be a real resident of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Here I was... awarded the honorary title of Honored Artist of the MASSR... given a personal pension. Well, that’s why I am connected with the Mordovians tightly and for life.” It is no coincidence that in the 1930s, when Mordovian autonomy was formed, the national theme occupied a special place in the artist’s work.

Mordovian teacher. 1937
Mordovian tractor drivers. 1938.
In the second half of the 30s, the themes of Sychkov’s art expanded by turning to Soviet reality.

Collective Farm Bazaar.1936
Harvest Festival.1938
Similar canvases glorifying the happy collective farm life were painted by many artists at that time. These two large-format canvases were created by the author in the shortest possible time at the request of the exhibition committee of the Volga region pavilion for the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition in Moscow.

Sychkov did not strive to depict people with complex, contradictory characters. In almost every one of his works one can feel a soft, benevolent view of the world, sincerity and humanity. It is true that a portrait is always a double image: the image of the artist and the image of the model.

“I don’t want to be old,” Sychkov wrote in one of his letters to the artist E. M. Cheptsov. “As they say, artists cannot age; their work must always be young and interesting.” In his eighth decade of life, he created such canvases full of fresh feelings as “Return from School” (1945), “Meeting of the Hero” (1952).

For the last two years before his death, Sychkov lived in Saransk. He still worked hard, with ecstasy and inspiration. For him, painting was a real source of joy. “Life on earth is so beautiful... but the life of an artist in the full sense is the most interesting of all activities...” - lines from a letter from F.V. Sychkova can be an epigraph to the work of this painter, in love with the world around him. He died in 1958.

A gallery of the artist’s works can be viewed here. http://maxpark.com/community/6782/content/5002408

The name of the original Mordovian painter who worked in the first half of the 20th century is Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov entered the history of painting into the category of “Forgotten Names”. However, at one time, the images of his Russian girls were very popular not only in Russia, but also abroad. So in the 1910s, the painter’s paintings had unprecedented success at the Paris Salon, where they were eagerly bought up by art lovers who showed a sincere interest in Russian village life.

F.V. Sychkov lived a long and fruitful life, wrote about six hundred paintings and over a thousand sketches. The main theme of the painter’s work was country life, rural holidays, folk festivals, winter fun for young people. The master’s enormous legacy has spread throughout the country and abroad. His works are kept in many museums and private collections around the world. And at the beginning of the twentieth century they were very popular colorful cards, published by Richard publishing house, which are a rarity today.

The future artist was born in March 1870 into a poor village family in a village in the Penza province. WITH early childhood He and his mother walked around the villages with a bag, which is why their fellow villagers teased them as beggars. For the boy this was so humiliating that from an early age he dreamed of learning some kind of craft in order to earn a living from his labor.

Fedot’s grandmother insisted on sending her grandson to a three-year zemstvo school. There the boy immediately showed great talent for drawing, and his teacher tried in every possible way to develop this gift in him.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/xudozhnik_Fedot_Sychkov_06-e149892408291.jpg" alt=""Christoslavs." (Children old village). Author: Fedot Sychkov." title=""Christoslavs." (Children of the old village).

Seeing extraordinary talent and desire in the young man, his fellow countrymen helped Fedot with money. And he graduated from the Drawing School in St. Petersburg, although not in six years, like everyone else, but in three years, since he managed to master the entire curriculum in a short time.

Letter from the war". А вот о дипломе не могло быть и речи, та как у художника не было документа о полном среднем образовании. !}

So Fedot Sychkov went further along creative path without a diploma, but with extraordinary talent and the desire to develop and create.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/219412078.jpg" alt=" Portrait of a wife.

And in 1908, Sychkov and his wife went on a trip to Italy, France, and Germany to see with their own eyes the creations of world art. Abroad, he painted many serial landscapes and exhibited his works at the Paris Salon.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Fedot_Sychkov_-009.jpg" alt=""Girl in a blue scarf."

Returning to his homeland after the revolution, the artist began to design revolutionary holidays, write genre paintings about life in new country. In 1937, the artist, disillusioned with the new order and feeling unclaimed, tried to leave Russia.

But by chance, his work was noticed and appreciated; Fedot Vasilyevich was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Over the subsequent years of his life, the artist will paint a large number of colorful paintings, imbued with positivity, youth, and an energy charge.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Fedot_Sychkov_-023.jpg" alt="Russian woman in a red scarf against the background of a landscape. (1923)." title="Russian woman in a red scarf against the background of a landscape. (1923)." border="0" vspace="5">!}

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/0-Fedot_Sychkov_-002.jpg" alt="At the hut."

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/xudozhnik_Fedot_Sychkov_05-e149892404287.jpg" alt=""Girlfriends."

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/xudozhnik_Fedot_Sychkov_08-e149892416010.jpg" alt=""Collective Farm Bazaar"

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/xudozhnik_Fedot_Sychkov_09.jpg" alt=""Snowball". (1910).

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/xudozhnik_Fedot_Sychkov_11-e149892429537.jpg" alt=""Return from haymaking."

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/xudozhnik_Fedot_Sychkov_14-e149892443128.jpg" alt=""Free time". (1910).

The name of our illustrious fellow countryman, a talented painter, one of the founders of Mordovian professional fine art, Honored Artist of the MASSR and the RSFSR, People's Artist of Mordovia Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov is known far beyond the borders of our homeland.

F.V. Sychkov created in his canvases bright, memorable, convincing folk images. Beautiful with their health and cheerfulness, they affirm the spiritual beauty and value of a working person, his right to happiness.

The creativity of F.V. Sychkov is distinguished by rare integrity. The artist’s sympathies were once and for all given to one theme - the life of his native village of Kochelaevo, in which he lived almost his entire life.

The native village of Kochelaevo, picturesquely located on the banks of the Moksha River, never left the artist for long. While studying in St. Petersburg, Sychkov came here on vacation, after traveling around European countries- Italy, Germany, Austria, France - he returned to Kochelayevo, settling here forever. In a small house that stood “on the very place and street called Rogozhinskaya,” where he was born in March 1870, the artist lived long life, full of creative discoveries and achievements.

The artist's life spanned two eras. October Revolution he met already established famous artist and in Soviet time worked for more than forty years. Russian by nationality, Sychkov dedicated his art to the young Mordovian republic and made a huge contribution to the formation and development of its pictorial culture.

Fedot Sychkov saw poverty from childhood and lost his father early. Like all the children of the Kochelaev peasants, the future artist could not even think about a good education. His destiny was only a three-year zemstvo school, where he received his first drawing skills. His path to art is similar to hundreds of others that people from the poorest strata Russian society at the end of the 19th century. Become famous people, they managed to get an education at a cost greatest work and great perseverance. On this path, Sychkov, in addition to a three-year zemstvo school, had work for a pittance as an apprentice in an icon painters’ artel, humiliation, and the first commissioned painting, “The Laying of the Arapovo Station,” thanks to which the local landowner, General I.A. Arapov, intervened in the fate of the talented self-taught student. He helped the capable boy enter the drawing school of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg in 1892.

F. Sychkov completed a six-year course at a drawing school in three years and in 1895 entered the Higher Art School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Academy of Arts.

Within the walls of the Academy of Arts, his professional skills were not only strengthened, his artistic worldview was formed, but also his inclinations towards certain genres and themes were revealed. Along with the portrait, he was most attracted to everyday genre. The main theme of Sychkov’s work is the life of the village.

Art also played a major role in the development of Sychkov’s creativity. I.E. Repin and personal communication with him, which the artist recalled throughout his life. After graduating from the Academy (1900), Sychkov quite actively participated in the then St. Petersburg exhibitions. His name is gaining popularity. He shows his works at spring academic exhibitions, at exhibitions of the St. Petersburg Society of Artists and the Society of Russian Watercolorists, the A.I. Kuindzhi Society, at a number of international exhibitions and were awarded various prizes and awards.

A trip abroad, which the Sychkovs (Sychkov married Lydia Vasilyevna Ankudinova in 1903) took in 1908, played a major role in the formation of the artist. Its purpose is to examine best museums Europe, acquaintance with the masterpieces of European painting.

The trip abroad gave the artist a lot of impressions and a lot of new knowledge in the field of painting. His palette, as if absorbing the sonorous colors of the south, becomes brighter and lighter. In terms of subject matter, the nature of Sychkov’s work has not changed. .Having received a powerful spiritual charge, he works intensively. This is the most fruitful period in the artist’s work. In less than ten years, he created about fifty different works, including over ten thematic canvases, such as “From the Mountains”, “Washers” (1910) , “Village Wedding” (1911) “Bachelorette Party”, “Difficult Transition” (1912) “Riding at Maslenitsa” (1914), “Again in the Motherland”, “Blessing of Water” (1916) During this period of his work, F.V. Sychkov enjoys great popularity among the general public.

The October Revolution radically changed Sychkov’s usual way of life and disrupted all his plans. Having lost his spacious workshop and rich customers in hungry, unheated St. Petersburg, he returned to his homeland, with which he never severed ties. In Kochelaev, he and his wife Lydia Vasilyevna settled in a thatched hut, adding a workshop to it, doing housework and cultivating their plot, like all Kochelaev peasants. It seemed to him that this was all temporary. As subsequent events showed, Kochelayevo became the place where the Sychkovs lived almost until the end of their lives.

At home, the artist was actively involved in social life the edges. In 1918, he participated in decorating panels and banners for the holidays of the district town of Narovchata and the Arapovo station (from 1918 Kovylkino). At his place in Kochelaev, he decorated the club with slogans, posters, portraits of the leaders of the revolution, and painted scenery for performances staged on the amateur stage.

With the formation of Mordovian autonomy, Sychkov was the first of the artists of our republic to create in art a bright, memorable image of a Mordovian woman “At work of a friend”, “Schoolgirl-excellent student” (1935) “Mordovian teacher” (1937), “Harvest Festival”, “Tractor Drivers” Mordovian women" (1938), "Erzyanka" (1952) With what dignity and pride do Mordovian women and girls wear their National costumes, adorned and hung with skillful decorations made of beads, glass beads, gems and coins. Around the neck are all kinds of necklaces, colorful, strung and woven. And they are called differently: “kargavakskya”, “karganberf”. On the chest lies a wide iridescent collar - “bayaravan karganya”. The belt has several heavier tassels made of larger beads. On the feet are boots with equal corrugation above the ankle “accordion boots” or “sermaf kamot”, knitted stockings with patterns. On the head there is a colorful woolen scarf with tassels, on which the “ashkotf” wreath is also worn. This national pride - a man with a bright soul, in a costume that was created by the work of generations, is marked by the national understanding of beauty, and is glorified by the painter. In one of his letters to his colleague artist N.A. Kamenshchikov he wrote: “I am not a Mordovian, but a purely Russian and have seen little Mordovians since I was a child, only now over the last twenty years I have become interested in the Mordovians and I really love the past of the Mordovians, their national costumes and so on... I I have done a lot in recent years depicting Mordovian life, but how could it be otherwise, because I turned out to be a real resident of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Here I was awarded an honorary title and given a personal pension. Well, that’s why I am connected with the Mordovians tightly and for life.

Starts in the mid-30s new period in the works of Sychkov. Striving to be objective, in his works he reflects everything new, positive after the famine and devastation that steadily entered the life of his native village. The activation of the artistic life of Mordovia played a significant role in the evolution of his work. “The creation in 1937 of the Union of Artists of the MASSR, the systematic organization of republican art exhibitions in Saransk, in which F.V. Sychkov was an active participant, all this could not but affect the works of the already mature master. At this time he created a number of works telling about life of the Soviet village: “Harvest Festival”, “Day off on the collective farm”, “Collective farm bazaar”, “Girl in a blue scarf”, “Rolling from the mountains”, “Gathering for a visit”, “Grinka”, etc.

The Great Beginning Patriotic War although it changed the painter’s themes, in general his work does not contrast with previous periods. It is noteworthy that during this period the artist, who was distinguished by his extraordinary capacity for work and productivity, worked very little. If in pre-war times he created several paintings and portraits a year, then during the war he painted one completed canvas “For the Defense Fund”, two portraits “ Portrait of a man", "Portrait of the Hero of the Soviet Union A.G. Kotov", made sketches of the paintings "Girls of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic study military affairs." main reason This is due to the moral state of the artist, who was acutely worried about the events of the war.

F.V. Sychkov created his own memorable type female beauty with pronounced national traits. His ideal has nothing in common with the classical one. His heroines captivate the viewer with their healthy and strong strength of people from the people, affirm the fullness and joy of being. The image created by the artist, although based on the image specific people, is rather of a collective nature. He has the charm of blooming youth, excess vitality, overflowing energy, strength and health. The entire arsenal is subordinated to its creation expressive means, which the master uses. Instead of thin, slender forms, his canvases have dense, tightly knit figures, exuding vital energy.

Sychkovo beauties have blush on their full cheeks, sweet and clear eyes, and a cheerful, white-toothed smile. A smile is an indispensable feature of the artist’s heroines. Thanks to their smile, they come into direct contact with the viewer.

The woman is the main character of not only everyone thematic paintings F.V. Sychkova. He created his complete type of folk beauty thanks to numerous portrait works. They were the laboratory where the main features of the artist’s favorite image crystallized. Particularly dear to him was the type of girl who was cheerful, red-cheeked, perky, strong, such as “Dancing Sonya”, “Nastya Knitting”, “The Reaper”, “Ustinya”, “Girl with Cabbage Seedlings”, etc.

Often the master paints paired portraits, in which he combines two models, placed either in the interior (“Away”, “Getting ready to visit”, “Girlfriends”), or outdoors (“Holiday. Girlfriends. Winter”, “Girlfriends, Children", "Friends", etc.).

The depiction of peasant children is one of Sychkov’s favorite themes. In his children’s portraits one can feel that traditional independence, the “work acumen” instilled from childhood, which still distinguishes village children from city children. He clearly shows the viewer that he loves his heroes, admires them, and understands their peculiar charm.

Distinguished by his extraordinary ability to work, F.V. Sychkov created over his long life more than three hundred completed works, wrote more than a thousand sketches, which are stored in the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, Ivanovo and Ulyanovsk, Ufa and Chelyabinsk and others cities of the country can be found in museums and private collections of the work of F.V. Sychkov. Everywhere people admire the artist’s sonorous colors.

And no matter how many years pass, Sychkov’s paintings will always teach people to love native land, will give people joy, as they have given to more than one generation. Because a wonderful painter, singer of Mordovia, singer folk life inspired eternal creativity, Eternal values: the beauty of the earth, the beauty of man, the beauty of human labor and happiness.

The name of the Mordovian painter - Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov (1870 - 1958) was included in the modern anthology of painting under the title “ Forgotten names" So, it's time to remember!

The canvases of Fedot Sychkov attract with the cheerfulness of their colors, white-toothed smiles framed by colored scarves, the radiance of the sun and snow, and the aroma of field herbs. Let’s compare Sychkov’s “Troika” (three children carrying two on a sled) with the famous “Troika” by Perov, written sixty years earlier. Perov has tears, anguish, tragedy. Sychkov has smiles, pranks, fun. And this despite the fact that own life Fedota Sychkova (especially at first) was not idyllic. At the age of twelve, the future artist, born in the village of Kochelaevo, lost his father. The mother, left with her children without a piece of bread, was forced to walk around the courtyards with a knapsack, collecting “for Christ’s sake.” Showing family concern, the grandmother sent her grandson to primary school. School teacher Drawing P.E. Dyumayev discovered the boy’s ability to draw and wrote a letter of petition to the court painter Mikhail Zichy. The teacher and student waited a long time for an answer from St. Petersburg, but they did. The response letter contained advice - to send a capable student to St. Petersburg art school, but there was no hint of what means. Fedot realized the main thing: he had to earn his own way for travel and studies.

Thus began his work and creative biography. First, as an apprentice to icon painters, then, mastering church frescoes and performing paid portrait work based on submitted photographs. The talented boy was noticed by a local landowner, General Arapov. He was not averse to helping the young talent and thereby “raising himself” in the eyes of his fellow countrymen, but is this boy really that talented? And Arapov entrusts Fedot with a test order: to carry out multi-figure composition on a “historical” topic – “The foundation of the Arapovo station”. And - so that the general is shown there in his working form, as in his youth, in his labors and without regalia. Needless to say, Sychkov willingly took up this task: either his chest is covered in crosses, or his head is in the bushes. He depicted, in today’s language, “the construction site of the century,” in the center (!) of which the still young “His Excellency” was rolling a wheelbarrow loaded with sand. But it was not even this fact that delighted the customer, who was observing the multi-figured canvas, full of movement. He was pleased that this curly-haired boy clearly had a sense of both perspective and composition. With the general’s blessing and ruble support, Fedot Sychkov ended up in St. Petersburg, where he entered the Drawing School. However, the general’s funds were not enough for everything, and Sychkov again took orders for portraits from photographs. I admire Fedot’s talent and perseverance! After all, despite all the hardships, he completed a six-year school course in 3 years! The next stage is admission to the Academy of Arts. I wanted to see Repin, I even caught him “by the button” on the academic stairs. That one - no good: not a single seat! However, he advised me to enter the battle painters' workshop first. - He is also a good professor - Nikolai Dmitrievich Kuznetsov. And he has places,” Repin convinced. That’s how Sychkov ended up with N.D. Kuznetsov. And over time, I didn’t want to leave anywhere. Famous colorist, master genre paintings and portrait, Nikolai Dmitrievich was at one time noted by Kramskoy himself. What good is there to look for here? However, Sychkov never forgot Repin, as his idol and mentor. Either he will look into his studio, or he will decide to make a copy of another Repin work. From those happy times, Sychkov kept a business note with Repin’s autograph, in which he gave permission to copy Repin’s portrait of the sovereign, with this argument, flattering for the young artist: “Sychkov is a good painter.” In 1900, Sychkov completed his studies at the Academy and received the title of artist , but the diploma, however, was denied: there is, they say, no document on complete secondary education. And he didn’t have the beginning to the end. So he went along later life without a diploma, but with faith in your talent and in a better future. He is an optimist. However, success ran like a dog in the footsteps of his lively and cheerful paintings, such as “Trinity Day”, “From the Mountains”, “Village Carousel”, “Peasant Children. Summer". By the way, this last one, painted in 1914 and located in a private collection, and then in the House of Pioneers and Schoolchildren of the Petrograd District of Leningrad, entered the collection of the State Russian Museum in 1973. Alas, not all Sychkov’s paintings had such an honorable fate. Many, through Sychkov’s relative, the emigrant artist Veshchilov, sailed abroad, where they settled, as a rule, in private collections, from which, with a few exceptions, they could no longer “get out.” To the credit of Sychkov the artist, it must be said that not all of his paintings peacefully calmed down in obscurity in private collections. There was also public recognition. He received six prizes at academic exhibitions in St. Petersburg. He was awarded a silver medal at an exhibition in St. Louis (USA). He earned an honorable mention at the International Exhibition in Rome. And in 1908 he personally visited England, France and Germany. These trips hardly added anything to his realistic, purely Russian painting. But there was certainly a feeling of satisfaction from the foreign voyage as a result of what was achieved. Upon arrival in Russia, he returned to his native Kochelayevo.

Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov is a talented, original artist, whom few now know. And at one time, his young ladies were no less popular in Russia and abroad than the beauties of Konstantin Makovsky, although the artists’ paths in life and art were polar.

The artist’s main theme is the life of peasants, rural holidays, folk festivals, and winter fun for young people. But his creativity is much broader. Early Sychkov is little known. This is a so-called “clean portrait”, where the model is depicted against a neutral background. And his landscapes of Rome, Venice, Naples? Also poorly known to the public. And just Mordovian landscapes... In addition, Fedot Sychkov created very beautiful still lifes. And socialist realism did not bypass him. Although he wrote it very softly, in his “Sychkovsky” manner.

Fedot Vasilievich's talent was timeless - in his ninth decade he painted the most best picture- "Erzyanka" (1952)

The main custodian of paintings by Fyodor Sychkov is the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts. S. D Erzi. On his website - detailed biography and gallery.

Mordovian teacher. 1937

(now on the territory of Mordovia), Russian Empire

Fedot Vasilievich Sychkov(March 13 (March 1, old style), Kochelaevo village, Penza province (now in the territory of Mordovia), Russian Empire - August 3, Saransk, Mordovian ASSR, USSR) - famous Russian (Soviet) artist, Honored Artist of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (1937), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1950), folk artist Mordovian ASSR (1955).

Biography

Born into a poor peasant family. Orphaned early.

He studied at a three-year zemstvo school in the village of Kochelaev, showed a talent for drawing from childhood, and studied drawing with the school teacher P. E. Dyumaev. He worked in an icon-painting workshop, painted frescoes in churches, and made portraits from photographs. From 1885 to 1887 he worked in Serdobsk, Penza province, with the contractor icon painter D. A. Reshetnikov.

From 1887 to 1892 he lived in Kochelaev, independently painted, painted icons and portraits of fellow villagers. In 1892, by order of General I. A. Arapov (1844-1913), whose estate was located near Kochelaev, he painted the painting “Laying the foundation of Arapovo station”. Shown to the director of the Drawing School for Free Visitors E. A. Sabaneev, the painting made an impression. Noting Sychkov’s talent, Sabaneev advised to bring the young man to St. Petersburg.

In 1892, Sychkov moved to St. Petersburg and entered the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. He was supported by General I. A. Arapov. In 1895, F. Sychkov graduated from the Drawing School and became a volunteer student at the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts. After completing his studies, the artist returned to his homeland.

In 1900, he was awarded the title of artist for the painting “News from the War.” In 1905 he was awarded the A.I. Kuindzhi Prize at the Spring Exhibition at the Academy of Arts for the painting “Flax Grinders”. Elected member of the Committee of the Society for Mutual Aid of Russian Artists.

In 1908 he went on a trip to Italy, France, Germany, bringing back many landscapes of Rome, Venice, Menton and sea views.

In 1909-1917, Sychkov’s works were repeatedly celebrated at Russian and international art exhibitions.

In 1918-1920, he participated in the design of revolutionary holidays in the city of Narovchat, at the Arapovo station and in his native village of Kochelaev.

In recent years he lived in Saransk.

Creation

The artist's main theme is the life of peasants and rural holidays. Most famous works Sychkova:

• “Portrait of Anna Ivanovna Sychkova, the artist’s mother” (1898)
• "News from the War" (1900)
• "Portrait of a Lady" (1903)
• "Portrait in Black" (1904)
• “Flax Millers” (1905, A.I. Kuindzhi Prize at the Spring Exhibition at the Academy of Arts - 1905)
• "Girlfriends" (1909)
• "From the Mountains" (1910)
• "Return from Haymaking" (1911)
• “Riding at Maslenitsa” (1914)
• “Return from the Fair” (first prize at the closed All-Russian competition Society for the Encouragement of the Arts - 1910)
• "Country Wedding"
• "Water Blessing"
• "Waits"
• “Difficult Passage” (incentive prize at the International Exhibition in Rome - 1911, prize at the Spring Exhibition at the Academy of Arts - 1913)
• "Holiday" (1927)
• "Holiday. Girlfriends. Winter" (1929)
• “Day off on the collective farm” (1936)
• "Collective Farm Bazaar" (1936)
• "Mordovian Teacher" (1937)
• “Mordovian Tractor Drivers” (1938)
• "Harvest Festival" (1938)
• “Deed for the eternal free use of land” (1938)
• "Back from School" (1945)
• "Meeting of the Hero" (1952).

Perpetuation of memory

• Since 1960, the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts named after S. D. Erzya has housed a permanent exhibition of his works (the funds of this museum contain the largest collection of paintings and graphic works by Sychkov - about 600 works, including etudes and sketches).
• In 1970, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding painter, an order was issued by the Ministry of Culture of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to open a memorial museum in the artist’s homeland. The house-museum of F.V. Sychkov was opened on March 11, 1970 in the village. Kochelaev after some reconstruction of the premises.
• Mordovian Republican Art Gallery named after. F.V. Sychkova.

F. Sychkov’s painting “Pretty” was in the private collection of the famous aerodynamicist G. N. Abramovich

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