Verbal counting. In the folk school of S.A. Rachinsky Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky (1868-1945)

Description of the painting "Oral Counting" by Nikolai Bogdanov Belsky

The famous Russian artist Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky painted a unique and incredibly vital story in 1895. The work is called "Oral Counting," and in the full version "Oral Counting. In the People’s School of S. A. Rachinsky."

Painted in oil on canvas, the painting depicts a 19th-century rural school during an arithmetic class. The students are solving an interesting and difficult example. They are in deep thought and searching for the right solution. Some are thinking at the board, some are standing off to the side and trying to match knowledge that will help in solving the problem. The children are completely absorbed in finding the answer to the question posed; they want to prove to themselves and the world that they can do it.

Nearby stands the teacher, the prototype of which is the famous botanist and mathematician Rachinsky himself. Not for nothing the picture is given such a name, it is in honor of the professor of Moscow University. The painting depicts 11 children and only one boy whispers quietly in the teacher’s ear, perhaps the correct answer.

The picture shows a simple Russian class, the children are dressed in peasant clothing: sandals, pants and shirts. All this is very harmoniously and succinctly fits into the subject, unobtrusively conveying to the world the desire for knowledge on the part of ordinary Russian people.

The warm color scheme brings kindness and simplicity of the Russian people, there is no envy and falsehood, no evil and hatred, children from different families with different incomes gathered together to make the only right decision. This is very lacking in our modern lives, where people are used to live very differently, not taking into account the opinions of others.

Nikolai Petrovich dedicated the picture to his teacher, a great mathematical genius, whom he knew and respected well. Now the picture is in Moscow in the Tretyakov Gallery, will be there, be sure to look at the great master’s pen.