Vasily Pavlovich Khudoyarov (1831–1891) was a serf of the Demidov factory owners. He painted the miniature picture “Rural Landscape”, which also has an alternative title, “Summer”, in 1856. This painting was most likely his examination work at the time when he was a student of the drawing school at the Stock Exchange in St. Petersburg. This is evidenced by fragments of a round red wax seal on the back of the painting with an imprint “… at the Exchange”.
This small genre scene was painted diligently and at the same time quite casually. The artist depicted a peaceful scene of rest from hard work. On a lawn, against the background of vast fields and thickets of distant forest, he painted a peasant, busy with his midday meal. Next to this figure, the master placed a dog, and behind him — a pair of bulls with a plow.
In this early genre painting, one can already feel the characteristic features of Vasily Khudoyarov’s artistic style, which were finalized by academic education. The work reflects the thoroughness and painstaking completeness of painting, accurately conveying the mood of the person, the emotion of the event.
Vasily Khudoyarov was born into the family of a famous Nizhny Tagil master, a hereditary lacquerer, iconographer, and painter. From an early age, Vasily Khudoyarov helped his father as far as he could. In the late 1840s, he was actively engaged in icon painting, successfully tried himself in other types of painting. The first departure to St. Petersburg for training did not materialize because of his marriage and the birth of children. Later, he began training at the capital’s drawing school for non-matriculated students. Here, he studied along with artisans, children of workers, petty bourgeois, as well as folks of lower class.
Initially, the school’s program was dominated by technical drawing, that was necessary in crafts and manufactory activities. Gradually, the First St. Petersburg School of Drawing acquired artistic and industrial specialization and began to resemble an elementary academic class rather than a school for artisans. For Vasily Khudoyarov, attending the school at the Exchange was a necessary preparatory stage for admission to the Academy of Arts. It was the first time that he came into contact with systematic art instruction. It took him at least three years to complete the education.
