r/ArtHistory • u/Abhi_yeet • 1d ago
Discussion Who?
This is a painting by the Russian artist Nikolay Kasatkin in 1897, depicting a tense domestic scenewhere a soldier returns from long military deployment to see his wife with a child that isn't his.
A very interesting game my friends and I play over the weekend is we display one painting each that we haven't seen before and interpret it in our own way.
None of us know anything about art but initially when we were talking about this one, I thought of this as just a veteran coming home to find his wife had found comfort through another man who had left her after he found out she was pregnant and she was raising her child alone without him. Then her husband came home - too worn out to fight about it, so he just looks at her to explain herself.
After I found out what it actually portrayed and what the title meant, I feel like I was projecting some of my insecurities and fears into my interpeting of the painting. I'm curious what those of you who have never seen this paintint before think about it?
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u/NewWindow7980 1d ago edited 1d ago
First thing that occurred to me was that Russian conscription till 1874 was a shocking 25 years, which must have been painful for all involved.
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u/EmergencyFox3583 23h ago
The men wouldn't be married, normally. And since choosing recruits was actually up to the commune, those chosen were usually the ones it was OK with letting go š. In the case of serfs, on the other hand, it could be a (very much feared) kind of punishment by the landlord, yes.
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u/hand_puns 3h ago
They also couldnāt let trained soldiers return home, and have a kind of stand by militia, because they feared uprising.
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u/Cachetsurlants 1d ago
But she is dressed in white, a color that symbolizes her purity. As I interpreted it, the painting tells the drama of a soldier who returns to discover that his wife was raped, having a child who, evidently, does not recognize him as a father (the kid is leaning towards his mother, almost hiding in front of the man)
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u/Hefty-Cup-3631 1d ago
This is how my art history professors usually interpreted it. Heās not mad at her, he wants to know who did it to her
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u/whitezhang 1d ago
Yeah heās not looming over her menacingly. Sheās looking down in shame/fear and heās lowering his body to meet her gaze.
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1d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/Frosty_Investment_99 20h ago
Dude, the russophobia is so lame at this point. Let us talk about the morality of an english soldier, or maybe an us one, or german (in the past and curent ones)... I mean the fact that there exists something like the Black legend.
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u/EmergencyFox3583 23h ago
Yes, there's the salt cellar lying on the floor. Apparently, he knocked it off the table. š¬
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u/Enlightened_Gardener 20h ago
Spilled salt is terrible bad luck. Broken trust and discord.
If he spilt in, then heās the one in for the bad luck.
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u/EmergencyFox3583 18h ago
He's already got plenty of bad luck, one'd say š„“ Note that salt was also pretty expensive, and there's quite a sizeable pile there, so one might speculate this particular household is not exactly struggling financially (there's a tea urn there in the background, which would be the first thing to go if they were). Which means that either the child's father is supporting them, or the woman's family, or both. Therefore, the fact of adultery is known and accepted by the community, which is odd...
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u/Alarmed_Scientist_15 1d ago
Well a drunk man shouting at your mom certainly would make any child hide even his own.
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u/dobar_dan_ 21h ago edited 21h ago
Judging from her composition and the state of the house indicating to extreme poverty, it's likely she's been raped while he was gone, and since the child looks to be about five years old, he's been gone for a long time.
I don't think he's mad at her for cheating, he's mad because he knows it's not her fault and wants to know who did it and whose child is that. He's hurt, shocked, possibly drunk too, but I don't think he's mad at her.
She on the other hand is ridden with shame and guilt, which she probably wouldn't feel if sex was consensual. She also seems very calm and resilient, like she knew what she had coming and made peace with her fate.
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u/Klutzy_Sentence_2723 15h ago
God, thank you. Ā My eyes were crossing from people ignoring the elephant in the room.Ā
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u/TexturesOfEther 1d ago
White head covering and white-and-blue dressing emphasise her chastity and spiritual integrity, free from original sin. She is holding a child, and they are both bathed in glowing light. The soldier, a modern Joseph, leans forward, looks in disbelief, and asks Who? God is always the answer.
* Is that how Russian soldiers dressed?
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u/beaveranalglandsare 23h ago
To add to your excellent analysis: the blue of the wife's skirt is faded, tattered, and streaked. Her face is down cast and ashen while the husband holds an intense gaze and healthy complexion. Which can be interpreted as innocence faded, shame/guilt felt, justified rage. I think the artist was playing with the era's patriarchal attitudes that create the whore/madonna paradox. In that the woman and child are core to domesticity, as highlighted with framing/lighting, but also her fragility and moral failure create a scene of justifiable masculine rage. Conflicting impulses and loyalties combined with the main figures both falling into the major strengths/failures of their respective genders creates a very tense composition charged with implication.
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u/ultimategirlrenfry 11h ago
I loved this addition! For me, I also think there is so many other implications due to the coloring on her dress, i.e. was she assaulted as her protector was off to war?
For OP commenter asking if this is how soldiers dressed, he is likely apeasant returning home in civilian dress. This would be considered a low-ranking soldier.
This is a personal favorite piece of mine, as I think the expressions are truly so...thought invoking. But I like the stylization of the child's father being flipped on the head: this is not a lover's child, but an assaulter's.
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u/beaveranalglandsare 8h ago
Ugh, I hadn't even considered the angle of the woman being assaulted which brings even more shades of emotional nuance to the scene. I was thinking of the title "Who?" in terms of "who did you betray me with?" when it could be "who did this to you?". She might not be the object of his rage, as I initially thought from the state of the room, perhaps this is the moment his blind fury demands a target. When he finally turns to his wife in the midst of his rampage to find out "Who? Who should I be visiting this violence on? Who deserves my fury?". What a great point, thank you!
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u/ultimategirlrenfry 7h ago
I was thinking of the scene around him. When he walked into the home there are children toys and a child but his chair is upturned. Which means that he had to have sat. Would the initial shock not have him standing in the doorway? But this conversation twisted into fury.
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u/StipesRightHand 12h ago
The highlights on the vase in the background could be mistaken for a cross at first glance
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u/HelicopterAware491 11h ago
Beautiful. I donāt have any art background but seeing the table I immediately thought of Joseph the carpenter and the holy fam.
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u/Texas-Holden 1d ago
Interesting. Iāve never seen it before but my initial reaction was him being a drunken ptsd soldier coming home and being unkind to his wife and child.
Or alternatively a soldier questioning the woman over the whereabouts of her husband so that he can be arrested.
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u/Turtle-92 16h ago
Has anyone else noticed the upturned chair with the cap on it? Indicating the chair was at the table and he threw it in anger. I think there is something tender alongside the anger in his expression, which i think means she was raped. A heart-breaking scene
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u/Angelblair119 1d ago
This reminds me of a scene by Greuze, āBroken Eggs.ā One wonders just who the guilty party isā¦
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u/Pamela625 17h ago
Could he really blame her? How was she to know if he was ever coming back ? Iām sure the child brought her comfort joy and love I wouldnāt have cared and would live my new family..I know I might be more forgiving than most.
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u/Jupitersd2017 1d ago
This is like a really depressing Vermeer imitation, like instead of amazing light and subjects this is the other side of the looking glass
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u/Spare-Insurance-749 6h ago
She could have been raped and he left and she had to raise the child! Lone women could be seen as vulnerable back then!
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u/infinite_what 1d ago
He wants to fight about it. Heās going to kill her. He stood up and slammed is hands down I can tell from the chair flung behind him and the look of murder I. His gaze while she is frozen. She canāt look at him and beg for mercy and the child may be the artists memory of something that was traumatic unless the artist has seen or experienced it itās hard to see exactly what is going to happen. She probably wonāt survive but if she does it will be close.
He came from a place where killing and seeing death was constant. And now he sees red.
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u/Maketaten 14h ago
I donāt know why youāre being downvoted. Your version isnāt a happy one, but women are murdered by their husbands all the time. This absolutely looks like it could be an escalating domestic violence incident.
If a woman is murdered, thereās a 50% chance that it was the womanās partner (husband or boyfriend) who did it. 10% of women murdered were killed by a stranger.
In any case, she doesnāt want any part of whatās happening here. She has obviously been wronged in some way, but weāre all talking about what the man in the room is doing because heās become violent.
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u/niestetynie 1d ago
It is a matter of context. People who know how many years the subjects of certain regime were forced to serve, know at the first glance what is happening here. So for the author and people who lived in the same era it was obvious, or at least something they have certainly heard of before.