Bathing horses. 1905 Valentin Serov (1865-1911)

Description of Valentin Serov’s painting Bathing a Horse

At first glance, the painting is unpretentious and requires no interpretation at all. A young man bathing a horse - what could be simpler? And probably in the brush of any other artist this scene would have remained an ordinary sketch, unfinished and poorly artistic, which depicted a casual domestic scene.

Any other artist would have done so, but not Serov, for his brush allowed to create a true masterpiece - from the pictorial and psychological point of view. Even someone not familiar with Serov’s work will realize that the painting conceals a profound content, something that is hidden behind an ordinary, seemingly sketch.

The atmosphere of the picture is penetrated by the author’s yearning for youth, the brightness of feelings.

Look closely: the working young man is in a hurry, his eyes are not focused on the horse, which obediently stands and waits to be washed. No, he is looking somewhere in the distance, somewhere, perhaps, where his friends are swimming and frolicking. Motives of freedom, freedom and rebelliousness are implicitly set by the animal, which most of us associate with these concepts, and by the sea. The latter is quite calm, it is only slightly restless, and this gives the picture a note of pacification, makes it not so gloomy.

The sky, however, is beginning to turn purple, but this is a sign of impending dusk, not bad weather. So the boy’s work should soon come to an end; a couple of movements and the man and animal will be at rest. It is impossible not to note that the author was equally successful with the characters and the seascape, conveyed with amazing accuracy and vividness.

Of course, in order to give the viewer the desired impression, Serov had to think carefully about the manner of writing, to make it more vigorous. Only then the grateful admirers of his work will feel the piercing longing of the artist for the happy days of long gone.