Painting clay toys. Clay toy XIX - XX centuries. Folk clay toy: differences in origin and manufacturing method

Dymkovo toy

The museum-reserve contains a large collection of folk clay toys: Dymkovo, Kargopol, Gorodets, Zhbannikovskaya, Filimonovskaya, Orlovskaya and Skopinskaya. We can consider this to be one of the best collections in Russia. Pottery has existed on earth for many centuries and millennia. And, probably, the same number are clay toys, a unique and somewhat mysterious area of ​​folk art. From ancient times she brought the art of small plastic forms with decorative painting, coloring, and ornamental decorations into the twenty-first century. A toy is a special type of folk art: its direct function did not always play a significant role in it. Many molded and painted figurines were not intended for play, but for interior decoration, like porcelain figurines. They were and are still called toys conventionally, according to tradition.

Perhaps the most famous are clay toys from the Dymkovskaya settlement near Vyatka (in the city of Kirov). They are widely represented in many museums. For many, the very concept of a Russian clay toy is associated with Dymkovo figurines and whistles. The creativity of Dymkovo craftswomen goes back centuries. The oldest examples, which can be attributed to an earlier period of development of the Dymkovo toy in the 19th century, are very rare. They have nothing in common with those bright, multi-colored toys with which our today's idea of ​​Dymkovo is associated.

Ladies and gentlemen; military and horsemen; young ladies and gentlemen walking and riding in a boat; nannies - nurses; water carriers, milkmaids and riders; animals and birds, real and fabulous - these are the numerous and varied characters of Dymkovo toys of this and more recent times. Basically, they are free-standing figures; At this time there were relatively few compositions united by a common base plate. The largest group is whistle toys.

In the index of the Vyatka handicraft department we first encounter the name of Anna Afanasyevna Mezrina (1853-1938), the very first Dymkovo craftswoman, whose work became widely known. Mezrina's earliest toys, known from museum collections, are ladies, ladies under umbrellas, a lady and a gentleman on a walk, a nanny with children, and a water-carrier. They are distinguished by thin layers of clay, elegance and grace of poses, and somewhat gloomy, but exquisite color combinations. Thanks to the general interest in folk toys and the works of Denshin, the late 1910s - 1930s became the heyday of Anna Afanasyevna Mezrina’s creativity and fame.

In 1934, a clay toy workshop was opened at the gypsum products factory in Dymkovo. A bright page in the history of Dymkovo toys of the 1930s and 1940s is associated with the work of E. A. Koshkina and E. I. Penkina. Both of them are hereditary craftswomen, but each had her own creative style. The early works of the 1930s are characterized by coloring with a predominance of dark tones - dark green, black, brown, with the occasional addition of magenta and yellow. The figures are squat and short-legged - this is a characteristic feature of many of Penkina’s works. The variety of details in the sculpting and painting of these figures is amazing. In each of them, Penkina’s inexhaustible imagination finds new options for costumes and patterns on dresses, usually built from her favorite motifs of rings, circles, and ovals.

Penkina's toys, probably made since 1938, should be considered a special period of her creativity and regarded as work in collaboration with two craftswomen - E. I. Koss-Denshina (1901-1979) and L. N. Nikulina (1906-1961) . Ekaterina Iosifovna Koss-Denshina (1901 - 1979) is the only one of the laureates of the State Prize named after I. E. Repin (1967) who did not belong to any of the dynasties of Dymkovo toy masters, however, many of the images she created organically entered the circle of Dymkovo toys plastics. In the 1930s, she began to help E.I. Penkina painted toys, and from 1936, when the elder’s vision almost completely failed her, she painted all her products herself.

In 1943, at the All-Union Folk Toy Competition in Moscow, a team of Dymkovo craftswomen - E.A. Koshkina, E.I. Penkina, O.I. Konovalova, E.I. Koss received the first prize “For samples of creative works.” In 1944, Ekaterina Iosifovna Koss was admitted to the Union of Artists of the USSR. A new stage in the work of Ekaterina Iosifovna herself began in the 1950s. She pays more attention to sculpting, creating images of ladies, nannies, water carriers, horsemen and other traditional characters.

Like Mezrina’s, Koss-Denshina’s toys impress with their plastic completeness; they have certain artistic merits even without painting. Her female figures are also impressive in a special way. Their plasticity combines the conventions of Dymkovo modeling with general anatomical correctness and sculptural expressiveness in the representation of the female body, like ancient toys of the 19th century. Toys E.I. Koss-Denshina can be recognized without difficulty. Over the years of work in the industry, she created her own original style. Her work is distinguished by the particular precision of the artist’s eye, who knows how to emphasize in the image exactly those features that are characteristic of a particular character.

Kargopol toy

The largest group among the collection of clay toys of the SPMZ is the collection of Kargopol toys. The basis of the collection consists of works by masters from the village of Grinevo, Kargopol district, Arkhangelsk region: Ivan Vasilyevich and Ekaterina Andreevna Druzhinin, their namesakes Egor Ivanovich and Ulyana Egorovna Druzhinin with their daughter Lyubov, Anastasia Evdokimovna Barkhatova, M. I. Voronova, N. Ya. Zamyatina, A. . V. Babkin - a total of 362 items, made in the fall - winter of 1936 - 37. The Kargopol toy, like some other toy crafts (for example, Vyatka), has fully reached that high level when not only children, but also wise fathers and grandfathers “play” with the products of masters. It received its name from the place of its origin in villages near the ancient city of Kargopol, Arkhangelsk region (former Olonets province).

In the 1930s, work was underway to restore many centers of traditional folk art, which also affected Kargopol. At this time, wide opportunities opened up for the development of the creative individualities of folk craftsmen. Works by I.V. and E.A. The Druzhinins are one of the best not only in Kargopol, but also in Russia. They are characterized by monumental sculpture and painting with subtle color design of the ornament. As in toys from other regions, we find here images of birds, horses, deer, bears, goats, rams, dogs; This also includes some variants of female figures.

Toy I.V. Druzhinina is noted for its special abundance of fantastic animals, unusual in their expressiveness of figurative characteristics. Some scenes are quite complex in composition. For example, a dog lying in wait for birds sitting in a tree; children playing with dogs; peasant feeding a duck, etc. No other museum possesses such rich genre material, unusual in plots and character of images. The blood connection with agricultural culture to some extent explains the certain archaic nature of the forms of the Kargopol toy, its special place among folk clay toys.

In the 1970s, the most famous craftswoman of Kargopol toys was Ulyana Babkina. The painting of her toys is laconic: the human figures have exposed parts of the body painted white: the head and arms; large spots of color - clothes and a pattern is already “drawn” or “written” on top. I whitewashed the faces of animal figures, added eyes with a poke of a brush, even drew eyebrows on others, and drew a colored border around the horns, tail, and legs. I wrote a herringbone pattern on the backs, and large red circles and oblique crosses on the sides. In the last years of her life, she worked mainly with glue tempera and gouache, and much less often with watercolors, that is, with what her numerous guests and customers sent and brought back.

Gorodets toy

The Gorodets district of the Nizhny Novgorod region is known as the center of wooden “Gorodets” carving, but the production of clay whistles - “pipes” - is a little-known folk craft. The village of Zhbannikovo, whose name gives the name to the entire craft, is traditionally considered the center for the production of clay toys. In the early 1930s, a new face to the craft was created by the young master Larion Trifonovich Potatuev (1912-1941). During these years, his name is already inseparable from the Gorodets clay whistle, just as the names of Ivan Vasilyevich Druzhinin and Ulyana Babkina are inseparable from the history of the Kargopol clay toy. When working on whistles, the master sometimes turned to a more complex, dissected form than in traditional products, creating, for example, cockerels, or combining the shape of a cone-shaped whistle with the shape of a person.

Cockerel whistles, rams, cows and other animals were sculpted in the 1950s – 1980s by a gifted folk craftswoman, Praskovya Stepanovna Timofeeva (born 1925) from the village of Ryzhukhino. She rarely resorted to enlarged forms; she mainly made small toys, which differed favorably from other local figurines in their plasticity and variety.

In the 1980s, the hereditary toy maker Venedikt Stepanovich Sirotkin (1928-1985) worked fruitfully in Zhbannikov. He created more complex forms of bird-whistles, complementing them with relief molded wings and fan-shaped tails, as well as figures of horses, rams, etc.

Techniques for decorating Gorodets whistles have also been preserved to this day: molded toys are placed in close rows on boards and dried in the shade for several days. Then they fire, and after firing each figure is painted with ringing enamel paints - red, orange, yellow, green, blue. The entire body of the toy is covered entirely in one color. Horns, ears, hooves, the end of the tail - whistle, birds have combs, are silvered with aluminum paint. After this, several spots are applied with a poke with the same enamel paint, but of a different color (red spots on a yellow background, milky white on red, etc.). They continue to paint toys “like Khokhloma”.

Filimonovskaya toy

The art of craftswomen from a large center of clay toys - the village of Filimonovo, Odoevsky district, Tula region. Filimonov toys of the second half of the 1950s - 1970s are typical folk creations, which reflected in their entirety and purity the traditional worldview and aesthetic ideals of the Russian peasantry. Tall ladies in wide bell-shaped skirts, with wasp-like waists and disproportionately small heads, riders on fancy horses that looked like giraffes, and fantastic striped animals immediately attracted the attention of visitors.

Unusual bright toys, decorated with geometric patterns of crimson, yellow, blue and green, were very different from the already widely known Dymkovo ladies, water-carriers and horsemen. They became a revelation not only for many lovers of Russian art, but also for most specialists. A thousand-year tradition can be traced in their silhouettes, shapes, and ornaments. They are very similar to clay figures of the 10th - 11th centuries, found by archaeologists during excavations in Kyiv. But, perhaps, most of all, Filimonov toys resemble ancient Greek terracotta sculpture in both sculpting and painting.

A few examples of old Filimonov products (mid-19th century - early 1930s), which are now in the collections of only a few museums, allow us to judge that the period from the mid-19th century to the end of the 20s of the 20th century was the heyday of the Filimonov craft . Modern Filimonov toys in museums and private collections are mostly represented quite widely by works from the late 1950s to the 1970s.

Almost all Filimonov toys, regardless of the plot, are whistles. The image of a bird, beloved and widespread in all toy crafts, is repeated many times and in quite a variety of ways in Filimonov. There are many options for making “ducks”, “cockerels” and “hens”. The original artistic style of Filimonov plastic art has been brought to this day by natives of the village, the oldest craftswomen: A.G. Karpov (1911 – 1992), members of the Union of Artists of the USSR: A.F. Maslennikova (1910 – 1970), A. I. Derbeneva (1909 – 1990). Nowadays, the tradition of the Filimonov toy is continued by E.A. Orlova (granddaughter of A.I. Derbeneva and A.F. Maslennikova).

Neither the Kursk clay whistles made in the 1930s, nor, say, the toys of the Oryol craftswomen of the 1960s, indicate in appearance the time of their creation. Despite some new details, these are original symbols of peasant creativity, in which ancient traditions continue to be embodied.

The earliest mention of the fishery is found in the newspaper “Oryol Provincial Gazette” for 1866: “Pot production in... Pleshkovo, Livensky district”; in the “Index of Trades in the Oryol Province” for 1880 it is said: “The fishery is old.” In terms of plot, the creativity of the Pleshkovites is not particularly diverse. The figures sculpted by both craftswomen represent favorite peasant characters - ladies, horsemen, cows, roosters.

The toys look so archaic, as if in front of you are not products of the 20th century, but ancient archaeological finds. The manner of their execution is somewhat rough, the shapes are round, soft, with an unclear, as if swollen, outline. Despite the unity of style, craftswomen approach creating images in different ways. Malyutina’s whistles are small in size, Ivanilova’s are larger and their assortment is more varied. Malyutina’s favorite characters are horses and ladies. Ivanilova, in addition to horses and ladies, sculpts dogs, cows and rams. Her figures, although rough, have a special expressiveness that makes it possible to recognize the hand of this craftswoman.

The Voronezh and Kursk figurines made in the 1930s are, in their peasant essence, close to the whistles from the village of Kozhlya, Kursk region, which sisters Ulyana Ivanovna Kovkina and Olga Ivanovna Deriglazova and craftswoman Valentina Venediktovna Kovkina continued to sculpt there in the 1970s.

According to the stories of old-timers, whistles have been made in Kozhla since time immemorial; many people made them, so it was difficult to sell toys at local Sunday markets and fairs (there were five of them a year). The favorite colors of Kursk craftswomen are the most active: blue, red, yellow, green. Of the red shades, raspberry is especially preferred. Regardless of the time of creation, all these toys, in essence, in their visual language, belong to characteristic peasant works, which are usually called “peasant primitive”.

Skopinskaya toy

The city of Skopin, located in the south of the Ryazan region, on the left bank of the Verda River, gained well-deserved fame and fame from original decorative ceramic vessels, known since the second half of the 19th century and representing the main activity of the modern Skopin craft. Skopin's toy is represented mainly by expressive animal figures, most of which are bears and horsemen - “soldiers”. Less common are compositions on stands, apparently intended more for decorating chests of drawers than for children to play with.

The collection of Skopin toys in the Sergiev Posad Museum began in 1937, when, in connection with the organization of the Museum of Folk Artistic Crafts (MNHR) on the territory of the Lavra, several dozen clay toys, including Skopin's, were transferred from the State Tretyakov Gallery and the State Russian Museum .

The main characters, including domestic animals and birds, a bear, horsemen and ladies, are typical of any folk toy. But in Skopin, as elsewhere, purely local techniques for arranging figures, sculpting them, and decorating them developed. Skopinskaya toys are unique and original; they cannot be confused with others.

During the expedition in October 2003, the Sergievo Posad Museum acquired it from modern Skopino craftswomen - I.A. Yakushkina and T.A. Kiseleva several works made on the model of ancient products. The smoky gray smoked birds are especially good. Craftswomen also try to decorate toys by scalding, using different compositions (flour, milk, kvass, and even beer) to vary the color (from light beige to red-brown).

Clay is a wonderful natural material that is ideal for children's creativity. Every child is sincerely happy when a bright colorful toy is born from a small gray lump. Give your children a master class on painting clay toys, and you will leave them with an unforgettable holiday experience.

Who is the master class suitable for?

A master class on painting clay toys is suitable for children of all ages. This is not only a fun, but also a useful activity. Modeling develops spatial thinking in a child, teaches him visual literacy, and painting helps him feel the wide possibilities of color play.

You can order a master class on painting clay toys:

• for birthday,
• holiday at school or kindergarten,
• New Year or Christmas
• graduation or creative class hour.

How is the master class conducted?

During the master class, our experienced masters:

• They will tell the children about the types of painting on clay toys;
• Will demonstrate vivid finished examples of work;
• They will reveal the secrets of painting clay toys;
• They will tell you how to use paints correctly;
• They will monitor the work process and help everyone create their own original painted toy.

You don't have to worry about the progress of the event, because we have taken care of everything for you! The cost of the toy painting master class includes:

• clay toys,
• paints and other consumables,
• all necessary equipment,
• disposable gloves and aprons.

All you need to do is provide a spacious place to accommodate participants, the required number of chairs and tables and free access to water. Each of the children will leave the holiday with good practical experience in creating their own toys, vivid impressions and an excellent memorable souvenir.

5 reasons to order this master class

Natural materials.

Doll chest

• Stary Oskol folk clay toy

  I have been seriously engaged in the study and revival of the Stary Oskol craft of folk clay toys since 1991.
  

  Together with Borodina's youngest daughter, Marina Borisovna, they found more than 400 clay toys from the 15th to early 20th centuries. We have collected a complete collection of toys from modern hereditary masters. More than 30 publications on this topic in the media and in scientific collections, a dozen videos on local television. More than 20 seminars were held to teach the technology of making Stary Oskol folk clay toys to kindergarten teachers, primary school teachers, students, and disabled schoolchildren. Since 2011, my grandchildren have been involved in studying the array of archaeological and modern toys.

  Comments: 6

• Kargopol clay toys

  On the table there is a round dance of elegant, akimbo young ladies in kokoshniks with black beady eyes, a club-footed man is dashingly playing the accordion, and a young village dandy is strumming the balalaika in time with him. Nearby there is a whole zoo: hares with carrots, goats, deer, cows, whistles and ducks, so beloved among Kargopol folk potters who make the famous clay toy.

• Kargopol clay toy

  What is famous about the ancient city of Kargopol, which is located at the source of the northern Onega River? Placed on the maps of Russia in 1497, the Kargopol lands extended all the way to the White Sea, were famous for their rich trade and unique culture; in terms of natural beauty, it competed with ten of the most notable cities in Russia.

• Kargopol toy

  The production of toys accompanied the ancient pottery industry in the Panfilov volost of the Kargopol district. Unlike pottery, making toys in the 20th century. not interrupted. The craft preserves the most traditional types of Russian toys - female figures, images of animals. In recent decades, genre scenes have become widespread. The Kargopol toy is characterized by colorful painting on the previously whitened surface of the figures.

• Skopin ceramics and toys

  Among the centers of folk artistic pottery, the craft of decorative ceramics, located in the city of Skopin, Ryazan region, is unique. The Ryazan land, rich in traditions of various types of folk art, became the birthplace of the production of pottery and molded clay whistles. There was a whole “pottery end” in the city, and the city’s residents were called “Skopinsky whistlers.”

  Until the middle of the 19th century. glaze was not used here, but ordinary black (“blue”) and scalded pots were made. With the development of glazing, Skopino products became much more colorful and decorative. Common household utensils of Skopino potters of the 19th and early 20th centuries. made of light clay, has soft outlines, the edges often end with scalloped “frills”. Hand washers, jugs, deep bowls, mugs, bread bins, etc. were molded on low hand-held pottery wheels and decorated with scratching, stamps, moldings and flowing colored glazes. Often brown and green or green and yellow glazes were picturesquely combined on one object.

Painted clay toys have long become one of the symbols of original Russian culture. Once upon a time, in the distant past, clay toys were objects of worship. The oldest clay toys found by archaeologists in our country date back to the 2nd millennium BC. These are small clay hatchets, dishes, rattles. The heyday of pottery folk crafts, which include clay toys, in our country occurred in the 18th - late 19th centuries. At this time there were about 200 pottery centers in Rus'.

Peasants raised grain and kept livestock. In their free time from agricultural work, they sat down at the potter's wheel, this provided additional means of livelihood. Women and children sculpted small funny figures. Children took over the craft from their parents and inherited a sensitive sense of the plasticity of small folk forms, which were honed over centuries and thus came to their perfection. Changing the shape of clay products was not welcomed: it was believed that this could bring trouble to people. This conservatism makes a lot of sense. Folk artists subconsciously conveyed to us the culture of their ancestors.

The most traditional types of Russian toys are figurines of women doing housework or raising children, images of animals, and genre everyday scenes. Whistles were especially loved, as they could be given any visual image and, moreover, used as a kind of musical instrument.

Each image of a folk clay toy carries its own meaning:

· The bird personifies the soul of ancestors, and is also a symbol of happiness and joy;

· The horse was considered the main amulet, a symbol of the sun;

· Deer is a talisman that brings abundance;

· Bear is a symbol of strength, power;

· Ram, cow - fertility, success in farming;

· Goat is a good force.

Modern masters preserve traditional subjects and develop new ones. We are now experiencing a kind of renaissance of folk art.

Clay figurines stored in museum collections and created today can be divided into two groups: archaic (symbolic) works and plot toys of modern times, increasingly gravitating towards the repetition of nature.

A bright, cheerful folk clay toy has a magical ability to decorate our lives, to bring warmth and joy into the decoration of our home.

Folk craft centers arose where good clay was found.

Dymkovo toy.

In the settlement of Dymkovo on the banks of the Vyatka River, craftsmen sculpted the Dymkovo toy. These toys have curvaceous shapes and bright colors. These are young ladies, roosters, turkeys and everyday scenes... The colors are crimson, red, green, yellow, orange, blue - colorful and fun, like in a round dance! Craftsmen added gold to kokoshniks and hats for young ladies and water-bearers, and to the combs of roosters and turkeys.

Filimonovskaya toy.

In the Tula region, in the village of Filimonovo, they made original Filimonovo whistle toys. They are designed for the child to play with them. The animals are funny and whimsical, simple in execution and expressiveness, the predominant colors are yellow, red, orange, white, blue, green and gold.

Kargopol toy.

Not far from the ancient Russian city of Kargopol, surrounded by forests, in the village of Grinevo, craftsmen made the Kargopol clay toy. These toys reflect the life and way of life of local residents - young ladies, bearded men. Kargopol artists love to depict animals: a bear, a hare, a dog, a pig, a goose, a duck... All the figures are somewhat squat, with short arms and legs, an elongated body, a thick and short neck and a relatively large head. Kargopol masters depict animals as thick-legged and sometimes dynamic, for example, a bear stands on its hind legs - the moment of attack; the dog has its paws spread and its mouth open; a duck with outstretched wings and outstretched neck, ready to fly. The coloring of the toy's painting is stern and restrained.

Gzhel.

Not far from Moscow in the Ramensky district is the village of Gzhel. They have been making pottery there since the 14th century. The dishes are decorated with molded figures, which makes them even more attractive. Gzhel porcelain is easily recognized by its blue painting on a white background. However, the blue of the pattern is not monochromatic, and if you look closely, you can see the finest halftones and shades, reminiscent of the blue of the sky, lakes and rivers. Sometimes the color of the painting is brown and yellowish-green.

Gzhel craftsmen surprisingly accurately combine the design of the ornament with the shape of the product, which is also a traditional craft. Among the clay toys of Gzhel craftsmen you can see fairy-tale characters beloved by children: Alyonushka in a long dress and scarf, Emelya with a caught pike. An interesting toy is “Miracle Yudo, fish-whale”. A toy tea set and samovar are good. All sculptures are finely painted and, despite the same color of painting and light gilding, they look cheerful and elegant.