Morning (Yablonska)

Soviet art historian Irina Abeldyaeva noted in the depicted girl the spontaneity of a child, and a quality of human warmth, soulfulness, clarity and freshness of perception of the world in the painting itself.

The painting was swiftly acclaimed by art critics, attained considerable popularity among the general public, and reproductions were published in major Soviet periodicals.

Both the slender, characterised by the elongated proportions of the figure of a teenage girl engaged in morning exercises, and the bright sun streaming into the room through the wide-open balcony door, and the tender green leaves of a creeper - all this speaks of healthy, bright, joyful youth.The painting depicts a room in which a girl is exercising next to her still unmade bed.

I did ballet and gymnastics, and the way the painting shows me with my feet off to the side and arms outstretched is part of choreography, these movements my mum noticed...

The painting depicts a thirteen-year-old girl named Lena, who is the eldest daughter of Tetiana Yablonska[7][8] from her first marriage to the artist Sergei Otroschenko.

[12] The artist's canvas is exhibited in the section of Soviet painting during the Khrushchev Thaw in the building of the New Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val (Inventory No.

Expert magazine, talking about this event, characterised Yablonskaya's canvas in the following way: "The symbol of the exhibition, its brand, which should immediately inform the viewer what he will see, what mood he will be imbued with when he comes here - a textbook work.

[19] In the first monograph on the artist's oeuvre, Soviet art historian Valentina Kuriltseva highlighted the fact that Yablonskaya was simultaneously creating multiple works.

The critic sees in the girl a childlike directness, and in the painting itself a warmth of humanity, soulfulness, clarity and freshness of perception of the surrounding world.

[20] The Soviet art historians Lidia Popova and Vladimir Zeltner, in their book on Tetiana Yablonska's work published in 1968, note the painting's morning-enlightened palette, based on the relationship between the flat planes of the walls and floor in a warm ochre tone, the white spot of the bed in "bluish cool reflexes," the tablecloth in a wide blue stripe and the blue morning city that is visible through the balcony door.

In the opinion of Leonid Vladich, a candidate of art history, the painting marks the artist's departure from the orientation towards Alexander Deineka's work.

At that time, radio receivers played cheerful music, and the announcer conducted remote morning exercises, including bends and squats.

[22] Leonid Vladich, a student of art history, noted that the sun outside the window and the green leaves leaning towards the girl emphasise her youth.

Fine Art and Design, published in 2007, it was noted that Yablonskaya's painting "shows a serene morning, the easy and relaxed atmosphere of everyday life in a very ordinary Soviet home.

However, the light falling from the depths and the selected angle of view (the viewer is positioned somewhat above the subject) create the effect of a prepared public performance rather than a home exercise.

O'Mahony highlights the distinction between the primitive exercises that were a staple of radio gymnastics and the more complex professional position assumed by the young athlete, which bears resemblance to the poses typically seen in a ballet class or a gymnasium.

[22] The British art historian's assumption is confirmed by the sister of the girl in the painting: "In her youth, Lelya did gymnastics, loved to dance, she was even told that she could be a ballerina.

In the 1930s, gymnastics held a significant position within the military training system, was incorporated into the curriculum of physical education institutes, but it was only after the war that it became widely spread throughout the USSR.

This is evident from the objects in the room (which display national characteristics), the bright sun, the warm southern air blowing from the balcony, and the girl's hairstyle.

[25] O'Mahony notes that "Ukrainian national identity here is linked, through references to physical culture and sport, to the broader aims and objectives of the modern multinational Soviet state.

The artist depicted the transition of Kyiv "from sleep to wakefulness, from darkness to light, from chaos (untidy bed) to a new order, balance and harmony.

"[8] The contemporary art critic Vyacheslav Surikov noted that the painting's depiction of a crumpled bed suggested that the girl had just jumped out of it, her arms outstretched like wings in flight.

At the same time, Surikov noted that a modern viewer, in his words, "poisoned by postmodernism," would still notice that the girl "is posing and, in order to assume such a position, she has clearly been practising."

"[18] Natalia Nekhlebova, an art critic for Ogoniok magazine, wrote of Morning: "Its humanity, warmth and freshness became symbols of the thaw.

"[2] Contemporary Ukrainian art historian and PhD candidate Halyna Sklyarenko and postgraduate student Olena Ivanchenko of Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University observed the popularity of the painting Morning in the mid-1950s, "where in a bright, sun-drenched room a thin girl does her morning exercises," but immediately remarked that Tetiana Yablonska "herself felt and understood the creative vanity of these works [her paintings of the time].

"[27][28] In a recent publication, Mark Dupeti (the pseudonym of the candidate of art history Ostap Kovalchuk) has attributed the painting Morning to the period of the artist's work when she transitioned from creating "large canvases to chamber, intimate depictions of her children."

These paintings, namely Got a Cold (1953) and Girl with a Net (1954), were widely recognised by the general public, yet the artist herself "did not experience full creative satisfaction" from them.

[3] In his book The Secrets of Nika Turbina's Life, historian Alexander Ratner notes that as a schoolgirl, the future poetess wrote an essay on Tetiana Yablonska's painting Morning.

This essay has not survived, but the girl's literature teacher told Ratner that part of it was in verse and dedicated to the glare of the sun reflected from the floor in the room of the canvas's heroine.

The painting is deemed to meet the following criteria: accessibility of the content, proximity of the depicted scene to children's personal experience, artistic value, realism of the image, proportionality of objects in accordance with real-world ratios, colour contrast, and clear delineation of the near, middle, and far plans.