Author: Bogdanov-Belsky, N.P. (1868-1945)

Title: New Masters

Date: 1913

Media: Oil on canvas

Size:124х153 cm

Provenance: Altai Regional Museum of Fine Arts, Barnaul, Russia

Accession number:

Subject: Bogdanov-Belsky - Indoor tea-drinking – Family - Samovar- Petty bourgeoisie –

Group portrait – Interior - Realism

The painting develops the topic of Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard: old nobleman’s way of life is collapsing. New class of the merchants and rich peasantry comes to take its place. In the “nest of gentry” at tea time is a merchants’ or prosperous peasants’ family.

New, “merchants” custom of tea-drinking became different. Tea was served on the table covered with color table-cloth. Yet merchants and bourgeois liked to drink tea with baranki and kalachi, holding a lump of sugar in a mouth, and from a saucer. Such a way of tea-drinking was unacceptable for noblemen.

Author: Grabar, I.E. (1871 - 1960)

Title: At the Samovar

Date: 1905

Media: Oil on canvas

Size: 80 х 80 cm

 Provenance: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia 
 
 Accession number: # 22541

Subject: Grabar - Indoor tea-drinking – Samovar- Portrait – Still life – Impressionism

 
 
At the table covered with table-cloth is a paunchy copper samovar surrounded by glasses, cups, and jam saucers. Sense of warmth and quiet coziness of twilight is created by punky coals in the samovar. The artist used to live for a long time at the estate of his friend N.V.Mescherin. The girl at the evening tea-drinking, his niece, is a future wife of the artist. Grabar wrote about the life style in the house," ... a samovar in Dugino has never left the table - either in the day or at night. For the night samovar has been wrapped into quilted blankets and woolen clothes in order to keep water hot till next morning".
 
 
 

Author: Korzukhin, A.I. 1835-1894

Title: In the Monastery Guesthouse

Date:1882

Media: Oil on canvas

Size: 196,7 x 150,2 cm

Provenance: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Accession number: #23252

Subject: Korzukhin - Indoor tea-drinking – Social gathering - Samovar- Parson – Group portrait – Interior – Genre painting - Realism

In the big hall of a monastery inn is turmoil of departure preparations and farewells. The whole action is spinning around a big dinner table with samovar. The morning tea-drinking

is finished, only children are left. Young man drinks up hurriedly his cup of tea. Two little old ladies treat each other with tea from the samovar. This splendid genre

scene was inspired by impressions of everyday life in Sviato-Tikhon’s cloister in Zadonsk. The painting is a great example of how tea-drinking ritual joins people of different society levels.

Author: Makowsky, K. E. (1859-1915)

Title: Alekseich

Date: 1881-1882

Media: Oil on canvas

Size: 93.5 x 60 см

Provenance: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Accession number:

Subject: Makowskiy - Indoor tea-drinking – Samovar- Portrait - Still life – Realism

The man on the picture is an old servant of the artist. Image of the modest, kindhearted old man is opened up in quiet happiness, which fills his anticipation of peaceful solitary tea-drinking. Boiling samovar with a teapot cozily placed on the top, a heel of fresh bread, and a raspberry jam in a tightly wrapped glass jar, a box with tea and sugar carefully covered with a cloth – in all that there is feeling of warmth and grace so precious for an unpretentious man.

Author: Naumov, A.A. (1840 – 1895)

Title: Tea-Drinking

Date: 1896

Media: Oil on canvas

Size: n/a

Provenance: The State Museum of Fine Arts of Kurgazstan

Accession number:

Subject: Naumov - Indoor tea-drinking – Samovar- Petty bourgeoisie – Parson – Interior – Genre painting - Realism

Tea-drinking with a local parson was traditional. The parson got closer to his flock and parish learned their religious leaders through informal tea-drinking chat. On the picture is interesting phenomenon of the Russian tea-drinking style – tea for the parson is served in the glass, but the housewife has her tea in the cup. Foreigners found it unusual to see that in Russia men use for tea-drinking glasses but women have their tea from china cup.

Author: Kustodiev, B.K. (1878-1927)

Title: A Cub Driver in the Tea-House

Date: 1920

Media: Paper on a cardboard, watercolor

Size: 33,8 x 28,7

Provenance: Memorial Apartment of I.I.Brodskogo, St.Petersburg, Russia

Accession number:

Subject: Kustodiev - Indoor tea-drinking – Samovar- Cub driver – Portrait - Interior – Still life – Folk painting

Here tea-drinking serves as a main subject of the picture. Crystal clarity of the window almost removes the barrier of the wall emphasizing the unity of external and internal worlds. A cub driver pensively peers into the window as if he contemplates at the cup of tea.

Author: Kustodiev, B.K. (1878-1927)

Title: The Moscow Tea-Room

Date: 1916

Media: Oil on canvas

Size: 99.3 x 129.3 cm

Provenance: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

Accession number: #22352

Subject: Kustodiev - Indoor tea-drinking – Social Gathering - Samovar- Cub driver – Group Portrait - Interior – Folk painting

In those years visitors of a Moscow tea-room solved important problems, discussed news, and made decisions while drinking tea. The cub drivers were habitués of the town tea-rooms. On the picture the Moscow cub drivers have a tea with solemnity. Here tea-drinking is presented as if it was a ritual of a big importance. At the same time some details – a gramophone cries its heart out on the counter, a cat purrs on the floor, a servant sleeps on the chair – add to this solemnity ironic dissonance... or create a home-like atmosphere.

Author: Ryabushkin, A.P. (1861-1904)

Title: Tea-Drinking

Date: 1903

Media: Cardboard, gouache

Size: 23х46,2 cm

Provenance: Private Collection, Moscow, Russia

Accession number:

Subject: Ryabushkin - Indoor tea-drinking – Family - Petty bourgeoisie – Group portrait – Interior - Realism

Through traditional family tea-drinking the artist shows the character of new country bourgeois. The members of the family are separated from each other because of rivalry, envy, money interests, and selfishness. The tea-drinking is formal – true meaning of the ceremony is lost. The oldest member is having vodka. It shakes traditional tea-drinking rules. There is no samovar – a symbol of hospitality and people union. The artist intentionally intensifies the feeling of oppressive silence like at funeral.

Author: Petrov-Vodkin, K.S. 1878-1939

Title: At the Samovar

Date: 1926

Media: Oil on canvas

Size: 81,2 x 65 cm

Provenance: The State Russian Museum, St.-Petersburg, Russia

Accession number:

Subject: Petrov-Vodkin - Indoor tea-drinking – Samovar- Family – Portrait - Interior – Still life – Avant-Garde

A family of working class becomes a purified ideal for the artist. Laborers are yesterday’s peasants. They inherited the same spirituality and combination of chastity and vitality. The artist thought about a family with his “planetary” categories. In this scene a family is a model of the universe. In the center of it there is samovar with all its symbolical connotations. China and simple glass on the tea table speak of reconciliation and co-existence of different social values.