The most terrible document during the Great Patriotic War was the official paper-a notice of the death of a loved one, which was popularly called a “funeralette.”

After receiving such a funeral, wives became widows overnight, and children became orphans. This is exactly the situation depicted in the painting by the artist Peter Semenov “Funeral from the front.”

In the painting, we see a grief-stricken mother who received an ominous funeral. In desperation, she laid her head on the tablecloth and spread her arms on the table.

Her hands, overworked and blackened from work, give her away as a simple peasant woman who works on a collective farm from dawn to dusk. After receiving the funeral, she will fully take care of the children who have lost their father.

The reaction of the children is noteworthy. My daughter clenched her fists and apparently can’t quite believe that Dad is gone. The teenager, on the contrary, understands that now he is the main man in the house and now instead of his father he is responsible for the family.

The artist Pyotr Sadofievich Semenov was born in 1934. He met the war through the eyes of a 7-year-old child in his native village, from which men began to be drafted to the front in 1941. It wasn’t long before the funeral letters began to arrive in the village.

The terrible news also came to the Semenov family. The artist’s father died a brave death shortly before the Victory, in February 1945.

Therefore, the painting “Funeral from the front” fully reflects the childhood impressions of the artist and his family, who suffered unbearable grief of loss…