«Poppy Field» by Ermolai Lopakhin and «Poppy Fields» by European Impressionists (based on the Play of A. P. Chekhov «The Cherry Orchard»)

Abstract

In the play AP Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard” is implemented receiving of ekphrasis: the text is full of associative links, symbols, culture name formed the aesthetic code of Russian and European impressionism. Chekhov recreates the cultural context in which the Russian intelligentsia lived at the turn of XIX-XX centuries. Many fragments of the “Cherry orchard” find their Parallels in the paintings of European impressionist artists. In particular, the story Lopakhin about the field of poppies is clearly reminiscent of a series of paintings by Claude Monet “Poppy Field in Giverny”. Chekhov's ekphrasis is clearly also drawn to the paintings of Van Gogh (still life with poppies and landscapes with poppy fields).

Many microcircuits and details of the “Cherry Orchard” can be compared with the works of Levitan, Van Gogh, Seurat and others. Chekhov's author's position is as follows: his heroes are under the charm of European culture, their mentality has changed, they lose their national identity, become “Westerners”, want to leave Russia. They are “Russian Europeans”, they are inherent in “lackey thought” (Dostoyevsky's expression). The genre of Comedy and farce becomes a form of expression of author's condemnation of the Russian intelligentsia.