House-Museum of F.V. Sychkov

The ancient village of Kochelaevo of Narovchatsky district of Penza province (now Kovylka district of Mordovia) is the birthplace of Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov, the place of life and work of an outstanding artist. Located 15 km from the district center of Kovylkino, the village has a rich history dating back centuries. The first mention of the settlement of Kochelaev is found in the scribe books of 1615-1617. In the “List of inhabited places of the Penza province” (1869) it is said that there are 546 yards in the village, there is a post station, a fair, a bazaar, a pier, four potash plants, two oil slaughterhouses.

This large village is widely spread on low hills on the picturesque bank of the Moksha River. Here Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov was born on March 1 (13), 1870 in a peasant family and lived most of his life. From here in 1892 he went to St. Petersburg, to the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts with the support of General I. A. Arapov (1844-1913), who drew attention to the talented young artist - a self-taught woman. In the summer, studying at the Drawing School (1892-1895), and then at the Higher Art School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Academy of Arts, Fedot Vasilyevich came to his native village. After graduation, the artist returned to his homeland.

It was in Kochelaev that many of his remarkable canvases were conceived and painted. Impressions of the life of his native village and beloved nature gave a rich material for the work of a talented painter and received a diverse reflection in his works. The work of Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov is a kind of artistic chronicle of the life of his native village.

Until 1933, Sychkov and his wife, Lidia Vasilievna (née Ankudinova), lived in a house built on the site of a chicken hut left after the death of their mother. But what happened on their street a big fire destroyed several houses, including the house Sychkov. Unfortunately, the fire left only a workshop located in the garden, and some outbuildings: a barn and a bathhouse. A living room was added to the upper-light workshop designed by Fedot Vasilyevich himself. The Sychkovs lived in this house before moving to Saransk, which they carried out in 1956.

In 1970, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding painter, an order was issued by the Ministry of Culture of the Mordovian ASSR to open a memorial museum in the artist’s homeland, which became a branch of the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts.

The house-museum of F.V. Sychkov was opened on March 11, 1970 after some reconstruction of the premises. The layout of the house and the interior decoration were restored according to the memoirs of the artist’s widow, photographs, letters.

The total area of a five-walled chopped house with a low porch is 82.78 sq.m. On the east side there is a workshop under a four-sided roof of a truss structure. In front of the house, as well as during the life of Fedot Vasilyevich, peonies, dahlias, lush asters that Sychkov loved to write so much bloom, replacing each other.

The exposition of the museum consists of memorial and art sections. The first is located in the interior of the living room, where the authentic things of the artist are presented. At home, F.V. Sychkov was modest and unassuming. He lived with Lydia Vasilievna in one small room with two windows, which served as both a dining room and a bedroom.

A significant place in the room was occupied by a traditional bleached stove in Russian village houses, near which a copper samovar and other kitchen utensils were on the bench. On the contrary - a tall chest of drawers, next to the bag, with which the Sychkovs in 1808 traveled to Germany, France and Italy.

Near the window is a round table on three carved legs. On both sides of which are old armchairs upholstered in colored tapestry. On long winter evenings, Sychkovs read a lot, listened to music, started a gramophone or gramophone. They collected a large collection of records, including folk songs, and gypsy romances, and arias from operas, and dance melodies.

Lydia Vasilievna loved sewing. She often posed for her husband in peasant sundresses, which she sewed herself on a sewing machine "Triumf". In the right front corner of the room is a wooden bed covered with a white blanket. Above the door hangs a massive clock in a round enclosure, witnesses to the non-fussy life that the inhabitants of this house lived.

On the walls there are stands with letters, documents, photographs telling about the life and work of Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov. Among them, the certificate of graduation from the drawing school of the Society for the Promotion of Arts, obtained by F.V. Sychkov in 1895, is of particular interest. Attract attention are the photo portraits of teachers Fedot Vasilyevich in the drawing school and the Academy of Arts, General I. A. Arapov, friends and colleagues of the artist.

The biographical section also presents government awards that marked the artist’s work: decrees on awarding him honorary titles of Honored Artist of the IASSR and the RSFSR, People’s Artist of Mordovia, a certificate and a medal “For Valiant Work in the Great Patriotic War”, an order book and an order “Badge of Honor”.

The interior and workshop of the painter were recreated. Here's his easel, sketchbook, brushes, palettes. The workshop is decorated with woven furniture brought by the couple from the south, where they often rested in the 1940s. On the sofa with rollers, covered with a bright carpet, Lydia Vasilievna liked to sit, watching her husband’s work, looking through magazines, newspapers and letters.

The most honorable place in the workshop always belonged to paintings, sketches and sketches, with which the unpainted log walls of the workshop were hung up to the ceiling.

And now in the studio hang paintings by Fedot Vasilyevich Sychkov from the funds of the Mordovian Republican Museum of Fine Arts named after S.D. Erzi - the owner of the largest collection of his paintings and graphic works (about 600 works, including sketches and sketches of the master). And each picture depicts a corner of your favorite village: Kochelaev hills, huts, the beautiful Moksha in the spring flood or on a winter vacation. And most importantly - the residents of the native village of Fedota Vasilyevich, with radiant smiles, blush-cheeked, glowing with joy.

In one of the newspaper publications of the early 50s, Fedot Vasilevich wrote: “I dedicated my work to the image of the common people.” The heroes of my paintings are mainly residents of the village of Kochelaev of the Mordovian Republic. I like to portray ordinary people not only in work, but also to show their cheerfulness, fun, games. I think that this inexhaustible optimism of the ordinary Russian person is reflected in his great creative power, firm faith in a happy future.