Hobbies in paintings by artists of different centuries

Every day you read on the pages of our website about various hobbies, learn to draw or make something out of paper, embroider, talk about traveling. Our ancestors did the same thing two, three, and five to six centuries ago. That's why there was no Internet there. This means that only artists could reflect these types of activities. Let's look at the hobbies depicted in the paintings.

Let's start with the 17th century. Franz van Miris the elder (1635-1681), who was considered one of the highest paid Dutch artists, a master of comic genre scenes, in one of his paintings shows us such a kind of leisure as...beading, I would like to say, but there is clearly something more expensive here. A woman's income allows it. She takes the pearls out of the lacquer box and strands them. The painting, by the way, is called "A young woman stringing pearls." And the girl on the right, judging by her expression, can only envy such an expensive hobby.

A century later, hobbies still have a place in the paintings of artists. So, Vasily Tropinin (1776-1857), known just for paintings depicting women at needlework, created a portrait of a "Lady behind the stitches". On it, we can examine in detail the hobbies of this lady. In her hands she holds a needle and lace stitches, translucent and elegant. She has two more skeins of playing cards on her lap. We also see a needle pad fixed on the table, and a carefully prescribed thimble, scissors. It's almost a still life, which gives us an idea of everything a lady needed for her hobby.

But here is the 19th century. Gilbert Ch. Stewart (1755-1828) — a classic of American painting of Scottish origin, was known for having executed a portrait of George Washington, which can be seen on a dollar bill. He gained fame as a portrait painter. But his painting "Anna Dorothea Foster and Charlotte Anna Dick" is one of the few paintings of another genre. It's not so much the portrait that's important here. How much is the occupation that the heroines are passionate about. On it we see young beauties at embroidery. One of them, more scattered, has embroidery only in the plans. But the outline of the embroidery has already been sketched. But the other one is working hard. The details of her work are well drawn, unlike many other similar paintings.

V. Borovikovsky (1757-1825), a famous Russian sentimentalist artist, whose work was appreciated by Catherine the Second herself and even posed for him somehow, in his painting "Portrait of Countess L.I. Kusheleva, nee Bezborodko with children" shows us that even a mother with children does not leave her hobby - risking, and on the contrary, he teaches his kids. In front of the young mother is a palette with different colors, a glass of water with a brush in it. The other hand is in my hand. Apparently, the heroine of the group portrait draws a spouse, father or someone else from her beloved relatives. One of the kids also wants to feel involved in creativity. His pen has already been in blue paint.

And in this painting by the German artist Johann Georg Mayer von Bremen, whose work already looks more modern (1813-1896), it looks like the apartment of one of our mothers or grandmothers in the 20th century. Here we even see two hobbies of this young clever woman: reading and knitting. You can consider a sausage, knitting needles, and a book. And how carefully the feeling of light is written out, what delicate colors of geraniums and the reflection of the sun on the walls! In such a cozy atmosphere, you can enjoy your favorite activities.