A scene from the Roman carnival (Detail)

A copy of a painting by Vasily Surikov. A woman in a pink satin domino-dress looks, smiling, from the balcony, holding a bouquet of flowers in her hand; flowers lie on the railing of the carpeted balcony; the bouquets are falling from above.
The story is like that. Pavel Tretyakov paid Surikov five thousand rubles for the painting Menshikov in Berezovo, and Surikov went on a trip to Europe with this money. In Rome, the Surikovs saw a traditional spring carnival. The painter conveyed his impressions of this magnificent and unusual spectacle in the painting “A Scene from the Roman Carnival”.
The Roman Carnival contrasts with my idea of Surikov’s work. By that time, they had painted “Morning of the Strelets Execution” (execution!) And “Menshikov in Berezovo” (in the Siberian exile!). Then will be painted "Boyarynya Morozova" (which is being taken to the prison in shackles)... A bit of psychoanalysis: I think in these paintings he unconsciously tried to get rid of childhood impressions (from his memoirs it is known that as a child he saw from some height the executions of revolutionaries in the Krasnoyarsk prison).
And it seems to me that once in Europe during the heyday of impressionism (the only idea of which was the fleeting joy of being), Surikov succumbed to its charm and wanted to become a carefree hedonist. At least for a while.