.png)
SILVER Seller in Venezia, Italy
The painting fits fully into the golden age of Socialist Realism (Sotsrealizm), the official artistic movement of the Soviet Union codified since the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934 and dominant until the 1960s. In this aesthetic system, art had the explicit task of celebrating the Revolution, the Party and its heroes, first and foremost Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, a mythologized and omnipresent figure in Soviet pictorial, sculptural and graphic production. The depiction of Lenin in direct contact with soldiers, sailors, and armed workers constitutes one of the most recurring and codified subjects of official Soviet iconography: the revolutionary leader not as a distant leader, but as a participant leader close to the armed people. The scene depicts Lenin at the center of the composition, in dark bourgeois dress —a deliberate element that visually distinguishes him from the mass of fighters— as he holds a document in his hand and addresses a group of revolutionary soldiers and sailors with an authoritative gaze. The fighters are recognizable by the carefully painted details: rifles with bayonet attached, shoulder-mounted cartridge belts, cockade caps, red armbands and the characteristic telnyashka (striped shirt) of the Bolshevik sailor. In the background, on the right, a geographical map suggests a context of military command; on the left, a red flag completes the revolutionary symbolic repertoire. The scene is set in a sumptuous interior —probably the Smolny Palace in Petrograd or the Kremlin — recognizable by its chandelier and golden walls, evoking the conquest of power by the proletariat. Technically the painting reveals the hand of a painter of good Soviet academic training. The brushstroke is loose and vigorous, with material impastos evident especially in the draperies and uniforms, in line with the tradition of Russian realist painting dating back to Ilya Repin and the Peredvizhnyks. The composition is expertly constructed: Lenin occupies the geometric and psychological center of the canvas, with the figures of the soldiers framing him on the left creating a narrative rhythm from left to right. The light, diffused and warm, enhances the leader's face and underlines his determined expression. The palette —dominated by ochre, military green, black and the touches of red of the flag and bands— is typical of Soviet painting of the 1950s and 1960s. Discrete state of conservation. The canvas has some surface abrasions and small gaps in the lower part, consistent with the age and conservation vicissitudes of the work.
ID: 73557-1771515928-144004
