[1][2] Together with two other works by Polenov from the late 1870s: the paintings Grandmother's Garden [ru] and Overgrown Pond, the canvas Moscow Courtyard has been attributed to "a kind of lyrical and philosophical trilogy of the artist".

In the fall of 1876, having joined the Russian Volunteer Army, which took part in the First Serbian–Ottoman War, Polenov went to the area of military operations, where he created a number of drawings based on his battle impressions.

In a letter to Elizaveta Mamontova (wife of entrepreneur and art patron Savva Mamontov) dated December 24, 1876, Polenov wrote "Strongly aspire to you in Moscow, probably, in it will be easier to work than in St. Petersburg, where not a minute can not have free to concentrate ...".

How you will be drawn in, to the marrow of your bones, to its poetic truth, as you begin to comprehend it, yes, with all the heat of love to translate it on your canvas, and you will be surprised at what will turn out before your eyes and the first to enjoy his work, and then all will not yawn in front of it".

[29][30] The artist was referring to the original sketch variant "Moscow courtyard" (in Polenov's own list of his works it was recorded under the title "Arbat corner").

[31][30] In the summer of the same year, already living in Durnovsky Lane, Polenov began to work on the main version of the canvas "Moscow courtyard", as well as on the painting Grandmother's Garden.

[34] At the beginning of July, 1877, the parents of Vasily Dmitrievich died: Dmitry Vasilievich and Maria Alekseevna invited him to their dacha, which was located in the village of Petrushky near Kyiv; apparently, the trip to the Kiev province took place in August.

[35][36] In September of the same year, Polenov stayed in Olshanka[35] — the estate of his grandmother Vera Nikolaevna Voyeikova, located in Borisoglebsky uyezd, Tambov province.

[46] In another review of the works of the traveling exhibition, it was written about the "charming, laughing, miniature landscape of Mr. Polenov" and noted that "the eye does not want to take away from this joyful, patriarchal picture...".

[9] In a letter to Pavel Chistyakov dated May 19, 1878, Polenov wrote about his long-standing desire to become a member of the Societe of Travelling Art Exhibitions: "...here are six years as I want to enter, but various external circumstances prevented.

[58] Together with two other works by the artist ("Udilshchiki" and "Summer"), the painting Grandmother's Garden was presented at the 7th Travelling Art Exhibition,[59] which opened on February 23, 1879 in St.

[39] In May 1879, after a visit to the Tretyakov Gallery, Polenov had the desire to make some changes in "Moscow Courtyard": in particular, to improve the image of the light and air environment.

[61] In the official catalogue of the exhibition, which opened on March 6, 1880,[63] "Moscow Courtyard" was not included, but there were other works by Polenov: "Overgrown Pond", "Valley of Death" and "Turkish Outpost".

In the distance, near the barn, a woman walks with a bucket, chickens wander near the well, and at the right edge of the canvas, a horse harnessed to a cart waits patiently for its master.

In November 1916, answering the question of Moscow-city's researcher Ivan Zhuchkov about the circumstances of the creation of the canvas "Moscow Courtyard", Vasily Polenov wrote that he "then lived in Maly Tolstovsky Lane, at the corner of Trubnikovsky, near the Smolensky market", near the Church of the Redeemer on Peski, which then "was white, and now has become dark gray".

The art historian Eleanor Paston, who has studied this question in detail, believes that in 1916 (almost forty years after the painting) Polenov could have mistakenly given the name of the neighboring lane.

The result was "a peculiar rhythm of houses and churches, supported by precisely and subtly found color relationships, the absence of strong light contrasts".

[79] The clear structure of the compositional solution of the "Moscow Courtyard" is achieved by its relative closure and "a kind of "interiority", the subordination of all parts of the picture to the whole".

The first zone represents the events of "farm life": the viewer can easily enter the "stretched" foreground, from which the eye moves along the beaten path to the woman with the bucket, from her to the right to the flock of chickens, the red-roofed well and the standing horse.

[80] The picture "Moscow Courtyard" was the first work in which Polenov's "aesthetic credo", which he formulated most clearly in 1888 in a letter to the painter Viktor Vasnetsov, sounded with particular force: "Art must give happiness and joy, otherwise it is worthless.

[83] In the same list of Polenov's works, under number 124 (under the same title "Arbatsky Corner"), there was mentioned the author's repetition, created in 1880 and presented by the artist to the writer Ivan Turgenev,[83] with whom he was acquainted since 1874.

[87][88] This version of the painting "Moscow Courtyard" (French: La petite cour de Moscou) is kept in the collection of Turgenev's museum, opened in his dacha in Bougival.

[89] The State Russian Museum keeps another author's replica of the original version of the painting "Moscow Courtyard" created by Polenov in 1902 (canvas, oil, 55.2 × 44 cm, inv.

[9] Art historian Olga Lyaskovskaya wrote that the painting "Moscow Courtyard" can be considered the pinnacle of Polenov's work, combining landscape and genre themes.

According to Lyaskovskaya, this painting "full of silence and comfort" "does not just depict a certain corner of old Moscow, but gives an unforgettable typical image, which contains the characteristic features of the era and its everyday life".

According to him, in this work Polenov managed to "perceive the simplest and most banal motif in a poetic way", to show the viewer the most ordinary view "as something unique, native, close and sweet, like a childhood memory".

The common features that brought these works together were emotional content, simplicity of motif, and the use of images of Russian church architecture in combination with domestic buildings.

[100] Paston wrote that in the "Moscow Courtyard" one can feel "the taste of a direct, childishly naïve perception of the world, its joy, its poetry and its mystery".

[100] According to the art historian Faina Maltseva, the main strength and artistry of the picture created by Polenov in the "Moscow Courtyard" lies "in the harmonious unity of landscape and genre painting motif".

She wrote that the well-thought-out distribution of the figures in the limited space of the courtyard gives the picture "crystalline clarity and integrity, without violating the immediacy of the impression of life".