Collective farmers waiting for the train

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Russia).

The work demonstrates how Shevchenko’s art sounds more generalized and monumental over the years. In particular, such are figured compositions muffled in colour and close to epic images; the artist created them annually visiting the Caucasus or Central Asia. Two girls depicted in close-up and surrounded by goods, watermelons and fruits, are waiting on the platform for a passenger train. The impassive faces are full of the dignity of people working on the land. The background is made with a certain degree of conventionality, and the figures of the characters are close to realistic, although they are depicted without any details. Their national clothes consist of beautiful draperies. Great colour accents are not local – they are “correct” from the point of view of Academicism.