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"Red Lilies"

Inadvertently, a glance from the window with a sunny July morning stopped at the graceful bright red lilies that flowered in the flowerbed of the neighboring house opposite and somehow spontaneously reminded of the still lifes of the "Red Lilies" of our countryman, Alexander Osmerkin.

Alexander Aleksandrovich Osmorkin was born in Yelisavetgrad (modern Kropyvnitsky) on December 8, 1892 in the family of a postal and telegraph office worker. The childhood of the artist passed in the house of his uncle, the prominent architect Yakov Pauchenko, who is on the verge of 19-20 centuries. created the European face of our city. It was in the house of Yakov Pauchenko that the artistic tastes and views of Alexander Osmorkin formed, which determined the further creative destiny of the future master of the brush, and it was in this house that the O.O. Art-Memorial Museum was opened. Osmorkin

 Returning to the picture of O. Osmorkin's "Red Lilies", it should be noted that the artist completed his work on July 23, 1952, certifying this date by a personal inscription on the left in the lower corner of the picture, removing any disputes concerning the date of his birth and giving us an occasion to celebrate in this year's 65th anniversary. Today, the "jubilee" is stored in the collection of the regional art museum, which is an unnecessary pretext for pride.

The plot of the still life at first sight seems rather simple. It would seem that there is something unusual - in the foreground there is a table oval shaped, covered with a tablecloth and a napkin in a red-and-black color scheme. On the table are two vases with flowers, one of them is high, massive, gray-blue with a bulky figured decoration. It is in it that is placed a flower arrangement among which attract attention of flowers, red lilies, graceful and tender. In the weight of the nearby - there are light pink roses. But looking at it, you immediately notice that in the center of the composition a peculiar triangle of vase-table-vase. Also interesting is the combination of a small, fragile, almost transparent glass vase with delicate rose flowers, among which one of the buds has just begun to open its petals, and next to a tall, massive, gray-blue vase with bright red lilies, whose color scheme goes harmoniously from the dark -related to red-orange shades. Unexpected contrast. Immediately awake the memories of the aroma of flowers, which is depicted in the picture, I want to lean closer and breathe it full breasts. You start to think why the author portrayed these flowers, what events he was experiencing and in what mood was. It is certainly not known about the internal experiences of the artist during the writing of a work ... Perhaps red lilies reminded him of the pleasant moments of life or about the loved ones, and maybe it was memories of his native land, because in 1952, the 59-year-old artist lived in Moscow and was not worried the times of his life. He was found to be seriously oppressed by the authorities, was accused of formalism and propaganda of Western bourgeois influences and even became ill. Less than a year later, on June 25, 1953, the artist left the world with the secret of what inspired him to create this still life, leaving a beautiful image of red lilies.