Kramskoi Meditator Ivan Kramskoy (1837-1887)

Description of Ivan Kramskoi’s painting The Contemplative

In 1870 - 1880 the artist paints a number of pictures in which with extraordinary skill he depicts completely ordinary people (peasants) who live their own lives, full of special emotions.

Before us appears a peasant standing on a forest snow-covered path. He is wearing an old caftan and traditional noodles. His hands are tucked into his sleeves, and his whole appearance reveals that he is very cold. Why did he stop? The reason is that he is thinking about something.

Kramskoy conceived this painting in 1870. It is believed that today’s title was given to the painting by Tretyakov.

What is the hero contemplating? Perhaps nature, or perhaps his family life. What is the peasant thinking about? About his own poverty and hunger, about the anger that awaits him at home. We don’t care at all who the peasant is. What is astonishing is another thing. He is so detached from everything that surrounds him. The hero of the painting is completely absorbed in himself. Before Kramskoi, there was nothing like that.

The man is standing there thinking. About what? Perhaps he doesn’t know himself. He cares about the very impressions of the state in which he was in the process of his own amazing contemplation.

Kramskoy portrayed not just an incredibly complex character, but a whole type of social plan. This is the original Russian type of contemplative, which necessarily gave birth to incredibly strong characters who often concealed their conflict with reality, hiding it under a seemingly unassuming appearance.

It was the contemplatives who were the main part of the silent people, but sooner or later the anger would spill out.

Even nowadays there are many contemplatives among the people, though over time they have begun to look different. They have not yet made themselves known. So far they have only absorbed all that is going on in the world. Soon it will be the time of modern contemplatives.