1924
oil on canvas
129 õ 145
From its first appearance at an exhibition, this work was recognised as a classic of Soviet painting. A critic remarked upon the way the still life conformed to the tasks of Socialist Realist painting, the maturity and mastery of the artist and the victory of an object-focused rendering of nature.
The artist himself wrote: “…I wanted to show…that our Soviet art ought to be in its feeling in rhythm with our times, persuasive and easy for working man to understand. I wanted this unambiguous subject to show realistic art. The still life Bread is the Moscow everyday baked goods of our age…and the composition which may seem disorderly and clumsy is “ours,” Moscow’s, from right here and not Parisian…Bread is our Mother Russia…our native, bread-like, orchestrated, something from the chorus, from the organ.”
