1865
oil on canvas
63,4 õ 87,5
Pryanishnikov belonged to the generation of artists of the 1860s whose art was characteristically accurate in details while giving a generally critical view of the content.
The subject of the painting was inspired by A.N. Ostrovsky’s play of the same name which premiered in 1864 in St Petersburg and Moscow.
Merchants and sales people “joke” – they have been drinking and they ridicule a retired official who wears on his chest a medal for 25 years of impeccable service. This detail strengthens the painting’s pathos as exposé.
There was no such scene in Ostrovsky’s play, but the artist uses it to show the heartlessness and cruelty of the world of shopkeepers.
at 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Hall 16
