The Zemstvo Dines

The Zemstvo Dines
ArtistGrigoriy Myasoyedov
Year1872
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions125 cm × 74 cm (49 in × 29 in)
LocationState Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The Zemstvo Dines (Russian: Земство обедает) is a painting by the Russian artist Grigory Myasoyedov (1834–1911), completed in 1872. The canvas depicts peasants of the uyezd zemstvo assembly: their lunch is simple — bread with onions and salt, while the noble part of the zemstvo (not shown in the painting) dines indoors, as hinted by the footman in the window wiping dishes.[1] Other titles were also used for this painting: the Uezd Zemstvo Assembly at Lunch Time[2] and Zemstvo's Lunch.[3][4]

It is housed in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (inventory 639). Its size is 74 × 125 cm[2] (according to other sources 75 × 125.5 cm).[1]

Myasoyedov worked on this painting in 1871–1872,[5] and it was presented at the 2nd Exhibition of the Society for the Travelling Art Exhibitions, opened in St. Petersburg in December 1872.[6][7] Myasoedov's work made a good impression: it was called "one of the best and most informative paintings on a modern subject".[8] In 1873, the canvas was bought from the artist by Pavel Tretyakov,[9] at whose request Myasoyedov finished the painting in 1876.[10] In 1878 the canvas the Zemstvo Dines was included in the Russian exposition at the World Exhibition in Paris.[2][11]

The art critic Vladimir Stasov called this painting as one of Myasoyedov's most significant works, as well as "a truly modern 'choral' painting", in which "there was also a note of indignation and satire". Art historian Irina Shuvalova wrote that the Zemstvo Dining was "the highest achievement of Myasoedov's entire creative life, the most capital, the most significant of his paintings", representing a major milestone in his work, which (along with such works of the 1870s as Barge Haulers on the Volga by Ilya Repin and Repair Work on the Railway by Konstantin Savitsky) defined "a new stage in the development of Russian realist genre painting".[12]

  1. ^ a b Мясоедов Григорий Григорьевич — Земство обедает. 1872 (HTML). Государственная Третьяковская галерея www.tretyakovgallery.ru. Дата обращения: 28 May 2019. Archive: 27 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Государственная Третьяковская галерея — каталог собрания / Я. В. Брук, Л. И. Иовлева. М.: Красная площадь, 2001. V. 4: Живопись второй половины XIX века, book 1, А—М. p. 439 ISBN 5-900743-56-X
  3. ^ Myasoyedov (1972, p. 58)
  4. ^ Nenarokomova (1994, p. 77)
  5. ^ Khvorostov (2008, p. 149)
  6. ^ Roginskaya (1989, p. 82)
  7. ^ Roginskaya (1989, p. 418)
  8. ^ Gombeg-Verzhbinskaya (1970, p. 56)
  9. ^ Khvorostov (2009, p. 65)
  10. ^ Khvorostov (2009, p. 67)
  11. ^ Sokolov (2005, p. 28)
  12. ^ Shuvalova (1971, p. 45)