Derived from the Italian word "istoria" ("descriptive"), the term "history painting" refers to any painting with heroic, religious or historical content. The plots of the paintings are based on real events, mythology, and biblical texts.

Originally in fine arts Religious subjects dominated - during the development of this style of painting in the Renaissance, the most popular were evangelical and biblical themes.

Paintings by Surikov, Repin, Gericault, Rembrandt and other artists depict events important for the development of humanity, culture and social consciousness.

Main stories

Religious

Any paintings with religious themes, regardless of affiliation with a particular religion (Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish or tribal religion). Christian subjects cover the period from the beginning of our era to the present, distinguishing the art of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and other subtypes.

Mythological

Paintings illustrating mythical history, legends. Popular topics: Greek deities, creation myths, Roman mythology and pantheon of gods.

Allegorical

Pictures with hidden meaning. On the canvas, one object or character symbolizes another.

Literary

Historical

Canvases illustrating real historical events with a high level of accuracy and authenticity. Particular attention is paid to details. A prominent representative of the direction is the Russian painter Vasily Surikov.

History of development

In his treatise On Painting, Italian Renaissance artist Alberti identifies the historical genre with the representation of saints and other biblical figures to demonstrate moral struggles, historical events related to the development of religion.

Renaissance

According to the tradition of the Renaissance, history painting aims to raise the moral level of society, ideal for the decoration of public spaces, churches, city halls or palaces.

During the Renaissance, the main features of the “historical painting” direction arose - great attention to detail, monumentality, scale, and the use of religious themes as the main one in the work of artists.

Renaissance

The historical genre of the Renaissance is represented by the following works:

Of the Baroque artists, Peter Paul Rubens clearly represents the historical genre. The main plots are mythological. Italian artist Caravaggio is known for his realistic religious paintings. Velazquez and Rembrandt are the authors of paintings on religious and mythological themes.

Baroque

In the Baroque era, the historical genre is represented by the works of:

In the 18th century

The historical genre of the 18th century is characterized by features not characteristic of previous eras. This period became a turning point in the development of painting. Artists sought to move away from academicism, looked for new themes for canvases, and chose minor events as subjects for creating paintings. The development of the movement was influenced by the dogmas of classicism and baroque.

Examples of 18th century works:

The decline in the importance of the direction is noticeable in the 19th century. Artists sought to dramatize art rather than elevate moral standards. The development of the movement was most influenced by romantic and classical styles. The themes of the paintings became narrower - the masters moved away from extolling large-scale events and religious subjects.

The French artist Eugene Delacroix was the most energetic of the romantic painters - his canvases clearly demonstrate romanticism in painting. The works of Ernest Meissonnier, made in a strict academic style, are popular. Adolf Menzel became famous for his depictions of scenes from the court of Frederick the Great.

In the 19th century

Art academies of the 19th century sought to return to historical fine art high status and importance in strengthening moral standards.

The great artist of the 19th century in France was the academic teacher Gustave Moreau, famous for his works on mythological themes. In England, George Frederick Watts was the best of the Victorian painters - a prominent representative of the allegorical type of historical fine art. In America, the movement was supported by the German-American painter Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze.

Examples of 19th century paintings:

In 20th century

The 20th century brought changes: revolutions, wars, crises broke the value system. Fine art was marked by innovations - abstract painting styles and avant-garde movements appeared. In the 20th century, the direction was no longer ascribed special moral and cultural significance. The historical genre became a resource used by artists to demonstrate the seriousness of their work. New themes - Celtic, Scandinavian mythology, ideological, propaganda, ideological painting.

Works of the 20th century:

In Russia

Russian historical painting is famous for the works of Vasily Surikov, Ilya Repin, Vasily Polenov. The movement was developed in the 18th and 19th centuries by realist artists from the Itinerants association. The most popular are mythological and historical subjects. The formation of the direction is associated with the formation of educational ideas, which were propagated by the Academy of Arts. Surikov and other Russian painters worked in the styles of realism and classicism.

Most of the paintings by Surikov, Ugryumov, Ivanov, Losenko are large-scale, detailed, executed in accordance with all the traditions of academic art.

The representative of Russian fine art is Vasily Surikov: “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, “Boyaryna Morozova”, “The Capture of the Snowy Town”, “Suvorov’s Crossing of the Alps”. Features of the works: monumentality, a significant number of characters on the canvas, dynamism, use of natural, dark tones. Surikov’s paintings are the most representative example of Russian historical painting.

The meaning of genre

The historical genre of the late 20th - early 21st centuries is developing in the paintings of artists - representatives contemporary art. Fine art gravitates towards abstractionism, thematically - towards current problems humanity. The direction allows painters to express their opinions on events in the world, changes in politics, economics, and culture.

The Great Holiday of the entire Russian people is approaching - the 70th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. This is a very important date not only for our country, but also for the whole world. Our people, our army won that terrible war and saved the whole world from the brown fascist plague. Many soldiers died on the battlefields in those terrible years.

Many ordinary residents died in burned villages and cities, in besieged Leningrad, were tortured in concentration camps or went missing. To this day, some families do not know where their ancestors are buried... Great losses came with that war to our homes. But our grandfathers and great-grandfathers survived, they won!!! And now, for almost 70 years, every year on a clear May day on the 9th, we come to monuments and monuments to pay tribute to those who laid down their lives for our real life.

Undoubtedly, many of you want to draw a picture for this memorable date and give it to a veteran living next door or, perhaps, to your great-grandfather, if he is alive and fought in those distant years. And just like that, you can draw such a picture in memory of the people who selflessly fought in the Great Patriotic War for our Motherland!

Stage 1. Our drawing will contain a plot about the battle between our fighters and the fascists. In the foreground we depict two fighting warriors. First, let's sketch out the auxiliary lines. These are several points and lines connecting them. These lines are the skeletons of future figures of the warring soldiers of the Soviet and German armies.

Stage 2. Draw the back of the fascist. The shoulders, sides and collar of the shape - we make all these lines according to the initial sketches.

Stage 4. Now we draw the hands of a fascist soldier. Based on the sketches, we show parts of the hand and a large hand with fingers. The second hand is visible a little.

Stage 5. Add the lower part of the German warrior's uniform.

Stage 6. Draw the legs.

Stage 7. We give weapons to the warrior. Draw a long rifle with a bayonet knife.

Stage 8. Draw the head of a Soviet soldier. Let's detail the face. Add a helmet.

Stage 9. Draw the front part of the form.

Stage 10. We complement the elements of the form - sleeves, hands are visible. The soldier holds an ax in his hand.

Stage 11. Let's complete the lower part of the shape and legs.

Stage 12. Add shading to the drawing.

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Creating pencil drawings for beginners may seem difficult and impossible. But believe me, it’s quite simple, even if these are the very first drawings in your life. Before explaining the whole process, how to do pencil drawings step by step, it is worth plunging into history.

A little history of the appearance of drawings

Since the sixteenth century AD. graphite pencil began to be widely used by people after, by chance, natural graphite was discovered in the town of Cumberland, England, in places where trees had been torn out by a hurricane. Subsequently, the evolution of the use of this material led us to such an interesting drawing tool as a pencil. It received its name from the Turkic families of languages, where “kara” means black and “dash” means stone. And although this tool was previously used only for drawing sketch lines and outlines of a drawing, today you can see beautiful drawings pencil, which depict 3D illustrations, portraits of world-famous people, tattoos, graffiti, animals, etc. Of course, there is a big difference between how to depict a monosyllabic figure, for example, a ball, and how to depict a person’s face with certain emotions . After all, this is a matter of professionalism. But any beginner can create noteworthy illustrations if they start by doing pencil drawings step by step, step by step.

How to draw eyes (video)

What is useful for drawing with a pencil

To start working with the tool, a simple hard pencil, a black pen and a soft pencil may be useful. The pen is used to highlight deep shadows and blacker details of the drawing, for example, if you are drawing a bird, then the eye will need to be highlighted with a pen. To shade the strokes, ordinary scraps of paper are used, which are used to rub the drawing and the individual strokes merge into shades of gray, giving naturalness and life to the picture.

Why Pencil Drawings step by step?

Unlike oil, pencil can always be erased and corrected. Therefore, drawings begin to be made from primitive figures. To draw a face, draw an oval that describes the outline of the person's head. Then proportionally divide it into seven parts from the chin to the top of the head. And then the lips are marked with strokes, which start from the end of the lower part. The tip of the nose is drawn at the end of the second part, and the eyes are in the fourth part of the face. But for a professional portrait artist who draws with a pencil, there are other guidelines. They know that between the eyes of each person exactly the same eye could fit, and no more and no less. What unit of measurement of proportions can you take the width of the eye, and this will be the same distance as one of the seven parts into which the oval of the face is divided.

What difficulties may await us?

One of the complex objects is the human hand. There are entire books that describe how to do something like this. pencil drawings step by step. But if you understand the technique, it all seems quite simple. The palm is presented as a flat square shape, slightly curved outward. Draw the same semi-square fingers, consisting of separate segments. Then everything is softened and rounded, shadows are applied, shaded and voila - the picture is ready

Where to start drawing with a pencil?

Of course, if you just want to learn how to draw a little, you can start with animals.
To draw a rabbit, you can limit yourself to three ovals. Of which a large oval is the body, a small oval inside the large one is the hind leg and another one is the head. The same method can be used to depict many of our smaller brothers.

An important step on the path to quality pencil drawing

An important step on the path to high-quality pencil drawing is shading and subsequent shading. Circular shading, which is done in small circular motions, works very well for drawing skin and various similar textures. There are also long and cross hatches, the names of which speak for themselves. Rough hatching is applied with a pencil lead sharpened with a spatula and is suitable for sketching and painting large areas. Well, black shading can be applied in different directions Very soft pencils, such as 6B, 7B. It is needed to depict the strongest shadows.

How to draw a 3D drawing (video)

How to Feather Hatching?

You can shade the shading, as mentioned above, with a piece of paper. But there are other ways. For example, a finger, a makeup brush, a rolled piece of paper with the tip cut off, and even an ear stick! What can experienced artists of this genre do?

Completion:

So, from the steps considered, the following can be distinguished: selection of the theme of the drawing, schematic representation of the object using primitive figures, shading and subsequent shading. And you can be sure that over time your experience will increase and replace a simple pencil and professional shading tools can come to hand. Who knows, maybe in this genre you will become a great artist, and the whole art world will recognize you!

Works of historical painting cannot be confined within clear boundaries dictated by genre. In some cases, a portrait, landscape or everyday scene rises to the level of historical generalization, thus transforming into a pictorial canvas of historical content. For example, it is quite difficult to accurately classify by genre such paintings as “Parade Portrait of Peter I” by Nattier, “Religious Procession in the Kursk Province”, written by I. Repin.

On the one hand, this is just a portrait and an everyday scene, but on the other hand, these canvases reflect real historical events. The origin of historical themes in Russian painting began with icon painting. It is on icons that religious subjects are often intertwined with genuine historical events. An example of such icons can be “The Miracle of the Sign” (second half of the 15th century) with scenes of the defense of Novgorod or “The Militant Church” (mid-16th century), which recreates scenes of Ivan the Terrible’s campaign against Kazan. The book miniatures of the “Facebook Chronicle” and “The Life of Sergius of Radonezh” demonstrate a gradual transition to a realistic description of historical events, which in these works act as a semantic dominant.

In Russia, the emergence of historical painting as an independent genre of fine art should be dated back to the second half of the 18th century. This was due to the creation of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. The first creations of the masters of the Russian historical school of painting were extremely distant from historical truth. Often, only the title of the painting (usually extremely long) helped to establish which country and time the depicted event was related to. Let's consider the painting by I. Akimov “Grand Duke Svyatoslav, kissing his mother and children upon returning from the Danube to Kyiv” (1773). On this canvas, the prince is dressed in antique armor and a rich helmet, and the children are depicted in tunics, and, of course, there is nothing actually historical (except for the fact of the return of Prince Svyatoslav) in the picture. A. Losenko’s work “Grand Duke Vladimir informs his wife Rogneda of the victory he won over her father Rogvold, Prince of Polotsk” (1770) is distinguished by the same pseudo-historical direction. This painting contains the same lush clothes and draperies, theatrical poses borrowed from classical tragedies popular in those days. However, over time, significant changes have occurred in the traditions of the Russian historical genre. This was facilitated by the approval of new aesthetic ideas and the direction of realism.

Home distinctive feature the new stage is that real events conveyed in the film with a high degree of historical accuracy. Paintings by K. Flavitsky “Princess Tarakanova in Peter and Paul Fortress during the flood" (1864), I. Repin's "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan" (1885), N. Ge's "Peter interrogates Tsarevich Alexei" (1871) are rightfully considered the brightest examples of a new stage in the development of the historical genre in Russia. The crown of Russian historical painting is the work of V. Surikov. Its worldwide famous works“The Morning of the Streltsy Execution” (1881), “Boyaryna Morozova” (1887), “The Conquest of Siberia by Ermak” (1895), “Suvorov’s Crossing of the Alps” (1899) have a tremendous impact on the viewer. Each of these paintings touches on a huge layer of Russian history and forces the viewer to think deeply and seriously about what he saw, and not just look at the image in admiration.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the historical theme in the work of Russian painters has acquired a symbolic interpretation. But still, the traditions of realism in the Russian school of painting were so great that even such adherents of romantic fiction as A. Benois, K. Somov, M. Vrubel and N. Roerich in their “court scenes” and “historical landscapes” relied on everyday realism and a sense of the originality of the depicted time. The historical genre of painting in Soviet fine art acquired a completely new character. At this time, the clearly expressed ideological component of the plot becomes the fundamental criterion of the master’s creative doctrine.

This period is most vividly characterized by the works of I. Shadr “Cobblestone - the Weapon of the Proletariat” (1927), A. Gerasimov “Lenin on the Tribune” (1929), A. Deineka “Defense of Petrograd” (1928), B. Ioganson “Interrogation of Communists” ( 1933). The depiction of events of the distant past by artists was not encouraged by employees of the state apparatus. And only during the Great Patriotic War the patriotic enthusiasm that gripped the entire people pushed painters to create monumental paintings in which valiant moments in history were glorified Ancient Rus'. Paintings by P. Korin “Alexander Nevsky” (1942), M. Avilov “Duel of Peresvet with Chelubey” (1943), A. Bubnov “Morning on the Kulikovo Field” (1943) are deeply imbued with courage and civic pathos of heroic events. However, in subsequent periods, the traditions of historical painting in Soviet fine art, freed from ideological dogmas and norms, were again lost.

In the 17th century, a division of painting genres into “high” and “low” was introduced. The first included historical, battle and mythological genres. The second included mundane genres of painting from Everyday life, for example, everyday genre, still life, animal painting, portrait, nude, landscape.

Historical genre

The historical genre in painting does not depict a specific object or person, but a specific moment or event that took place in the history of past eras. It is included in the main genres of painting in art. Portrait, battle, everyday and mythological genres are often closely intertwined with the historical.

"Conquest of Siberia by Ermak" (1891-1895)
Vasily Surikov

Artists Nicolas Poussin, Tintoretto, Eugene Delacroix, Peter Rubens, Vasily Ivanovich Surikov, Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev and many others painted their paintings in the historical genre.

Mythological genre

Tales, ancient legends and myths, folklore - the depiction of these subjects, heroes and events has found its place in the mythological genre of painting. Perhaps it can be distinguished in the paintings of any people, because the history of each ethnic group is full of legends and traditions. For example, such a plot of Greek mythology as the secret romance of the god of war Ares and the goddess of beauty Aphrodite is depicted in the painting “Parnassus” by an Italian artist named Andrea Mantegna.

"Parnassus" (1497)
Andrea Mantegna

Mythology in painting was finally formed during the Renaissance. Representatives of this genre, in addition to Andrea Mantegna, are Rafael Santi, Giorgione, Lucas Cranach, Sandro Botticelli, Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov and others.

Battle genre

Battle painting describes scenes from military life. Most often, various military campaigns are illustrated, as well as sea and land battles. And since these fights are often taken from real story, then the battle and historical genres find their intersection point here.

Fragment of the panorama “Battle of Borodino” (1912)
Franz Roubaud

Battle painting took shape during the Italian Renaissance in the works of artists Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vinci, and then Theodore Gericault, Francisco Goya, Franz Alekseevich Roubaud, Mitrofan Borisovich Grekov and many other painters.

Everyday genre

Scenes from the everyday, public or private life of ordinary people, be it urban or peasant life, are depicted in the everyday genre in painting. Like many others genres of painting, everyday paintings are rarely found in their own form, becoming part of the portrait or landscape genre.

"Musical Instrument Seller" (1652)
Karel Fabricius

The origin of everyday painting occurred in the 10th century in the East, and it moved to Europe and Russia only in XVII-XVIII centuries. Jan Vermeer, Karel Fabricius and Gabriel Metsu, Mikhail Shibanov and Ivan Alekseevich Ermenev are the most famous artists household paintings of that period.

Animalistic genre

Main objects animal genre are animals and birds, both wild and domestic, and in general all representatives of the animal world. Initially, animal art was included in the genres Chinese painting, since it first appeared in China in the 8th century. In Europe, animal painting was formed only during the Renaissance - animals at that time were depicted as the embodiment of human vices and virtues.

"Horses in the Meadow" (1649)
Paulus Potter

Antonio Pisanello, Paulus Potter, Albrecht Durer, Frans Snyders, Albert Cuyp are the main representatives of animal painting in the fine arts.

Still life

The still life genre depicts objects that surround a person in life. These are inanimate objects combined into one group. Such objects may belong to the same genus (for example, only fruits are depicted in the picture), or they may be dissimilar (fruits, utensils, musical instruments, flowers, etc.).

"Flowers in a Basket, Butterfly and Dragonfly" (1614)
Ambrosius Bosshart the Elder

Still life as an independent genre took shape in the 17th century. The Flemish and Dutch schools of still life are especially distinguished. Representatives of a wide variety of styles painted their paintings in this genre, from realism to cubism. Some of the most famous still lifes were painted by painters Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Albertus Jonah Brandt, Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Willem Claes Heda.

Portrait

Portrait is a genre of painting, which is one of the most common in the fine arts. The purpose of a portrait in painting is to depict a person, but not just his appearance, but also to convey the inner feelings and mood of the person being portrayed.

Portraits can be single, pair, group, as well as a self-portrait, which is sometimes distinguished as a separate genre. And the most famous portrait of all time, perhaps, is the painting by Leonardo da Vinci called “Portrait of Madame Lisa del Giocondo,” known to everyone as the “Mona Lisa.”

"Mona Lisa" (1503-1506)
Leonardo da Vinci

The first portraits appeared thousands of years ago in Ancient Egypt- these were images of pharaohs. Since then, most artists of all times have tried themselves in this genre in one way or another. Portrait and historical genres of painting can also intersect: the depiction of a great historical figure will be considered a work of historical genre, although at the same time it will convey the appearance and character of this person as a portrait.

Nude

The purpose of the nude genre is to depict the naked human body. The Renaissance period is considered the moment of the emergence and development of this type of painting, and the main object of painting then most often became the female body, which embodied the beauty of the era.

"Rural Concert" (1510)
Titian

Titian, Amedeo Modigliani, Antonio da Correggio, Giorgione, Pablo Picasso are the most famous artists who painted nude paintings.

Scenery

The main theme of the landscape genre is nature, environment- city, countryside or wilderness. The first landscapes appeared in ancient times when painting palaces and temples, creating miniatures and icons. Landscape began to emerge as an independent genre in the 16th century and has since become one of the most popular genres. genres of painting.

It is present in the works of many painters, starting with Peter Rubens, Alexei Kondratyevich Savrasov, Edouard Manet, continuing with Isaac Ilyich Levitan, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and ending with many contemporary artists of the 21st century.

"Golden Autumn" (1895)
Isaac Levitan

Among landscape paintings, one can distinguish such genres as sea and city landscapes.

Veduta

Veduta is a landscape, the purpose of which is to depict the appearance of an urban area and convey its beauty and flavor. Later, with the development of industry, the urban landscape turns into an industrial landscape.

"St. Mark's Square" (1730)
Canaletto

You can appreciate city landscapes by getting acquainted with the works of Canaletto, Pieter Bruegel, Fyodor Yakovlevich Alekseev, Sylvester Feodosievich Shchedrin.

Marina

A seascape, or marina, depicts the nature of the sea element, its grandeur. The most famous marine painter in the world is perhaps Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, whose painting “The Ninth Wave” can be called a masterpiece of Russian painting. The heyday of the marina occurred simultaneously with the development of the landscape as such.

"Sailboat in a Storm" (1886)
James Buttersworth

with their own seascapes also known are Katsushika Hokusai, James Edward Buttersworth, Alexey Petrovich Bogolyubov, Lev Felixovich Lagorio and Rafael Monleon Torres.

If you want to learn even more about how painting genres in art arose and developed, watch the following video:

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