Portrait drawing of the Great Patriotic War. Documentary and artistic evidence of eyewitnesses

Abstract

The article highlights the need to create a portrait drawing in frontline conditions. One of the important factors is the creation of portrait images, posters, aimed at the propaganda of military activities in the Red Army. In addition, the artists were fully interested in creating sketches for paintings, portraits, diary entries reflecting reality not only for agitation, but also for the creation of creative works that contain their own view of the working days of the frontline soldiers. The analysis of the paintings shows how similar and at the same time different the portraits are. To a large extent, the differences are due to the place of battles, their complexity and the circumstances in which the portrait drawings were created. The images of people were united by moral and volitional desire for victory, the imprint of fatigue on the face, the experience of relatives and friends who became close in battle. One of the important aspects for understanding the portrait image is the conditions for creating a picture - it is a portrait after the battle with combat weapons, wounded in hospital, at a concert, in the working environment of the headquarters, writing a letter in a trench. The models for portraits were as a rule people close to the artists and who belonged to the combat unit where they served.