2-913-644 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Russian Serf", painted by Joseph J. Jenkins - from the Exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, 1854. 'Russian peasants are all serfs; and here we see a female in the act of drawing water for the use of a party of soldiers in the distance; the employment of females in civil labour being a distinctive characteristic of barbarous and semi civilised nations. Behind, resting on the back of the old horse, is a young urchin serf whose contented look betrays the fact that he is little aware of the cruel austerities to which fate submits his afterlife; smiling as he does in his chains. Mr Jenkins, whose delicate pencil is unrivalled in this branch of art, has given a couleur-de-rose aspect to the whole subject, which though highly agreeable in a picture, we fear little accords with the stern realities of the subject. The costume is accurate and very effective...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.