1872
oil on canvas
74 х 125

The painting reflects the realities of post-Reform Russia of the 1860s, when elected organs of local self-government, the zemstvo, began to form. Peasants were also elected to these institutions, but due to the high property qualification, their numbers were insignificant. The artist shows the unequal status of members of the zemstvo board by the simple device of the “zemstvo dining” according to its social status. The peasants are arranged on the ground and their meal is a piece of bread and onion. Over their heads, we see through the open window of the dining room how the servants are wiping dry the dinner plates for “noble” representatives of the zemstvo. Myasoedov does not accentuate the critical side. He wants to present the scene objectively and the viewer can draw his own conclusions. The genre artists of the 1870s declined to depict their scenes in too accusatory a manner; they did not “point fingers” over manifestations of social injustice.