Аннотация: A watermelon and the reading two biographies of Ilya Repin (from Igor Grabar and from Sofia Prorokova). A drawing.
A watermelon and the reading two biographies of Ilya Repin (from Igor Grabar and from Sofia Prorokova). A drawing.
While shopping at the supermarket today, I found myself next to a huge cardboard box, in which several huge watermelons were lying at the bottom. The price was incredibly low: 5 rubles for 1 kilogram. (Slightly higher the price of "9 rubles per kg" was crossed off).
Buying a watermelon was not in my plans, but the huge size of the watermelon and the low price prompted me to make a purchase. In October, watermelons are already ripe ones, and if they are overripe, then it's not so scary.
The watermelon, because of its huge size, had to be transported towards the checkout in a separate cart.
A pretty salesgirl, with a beautiful hairstyle, possibly pregnant, with an engagement ring, was completing calculations with a previous buyer.
The watermelon was so large that I preferred to get instructions from the salesgirl: how and where to put it for weighing.
The instruction to me from the saleswoman was simple: stand still and don't worry.
The salesgirl came out from behind the cash register, approached the cart, took the watermelon with both hands, headed with him back towards the cash register, put the merchandise on the scales.
I asked about the price.
"Fifty-six rubles."
"Ten kilograms?"
The price is approximate, the scales are not adapted for weighing watermelons of such sizes.
According to my estimates, the weight of the watermelon exceeded 15 kilograms. But I didn't argue with the saleswoman. A huge gain in price!
The watermelon returned to the cart, then he rolled, with difficulty, into a plastic bag and with efforts (and with some stress) he reached my home to be eaten.
I had to wash it in a special way. It wasn't that easy to do.
And here he is on my table. It rises above a deep plate. The plate is not visible because of the watermelon.
I take a knife and cut out a piece of watermelon.
Now I will see a little wilted delicious red pulp.
A small flood begins.
Watermelon juice flows from a cut watermelon.
The inside of a watermelon is a liquid rather than a pulp.
Everything, inside, is trying to leak out onto the table, and I have to be quick, dexterity and ingenuity to escape from this flood.
A big separate pot is using to place the watermelon juice and liquid watermelon mush (former pulp) - for subsequent disposal. The spilled watermelon juice is wiping first from the table, and then from the floor...
What is left?
On the inside, along the watermelon rind, there is an edible pulp - about one centimeter thick.
It's very tasty.
The watermelon is so big that after eating some of this pulp, I leave the watermelon - what's left of it after the flood - for tomorrow.
According to the rules, you need to feel annoyed, remember the supermarket with an unkind word...
A skillful sellers!...
The cunning people!
56 rubles were paid; the watermelon reached to my home with difficulty; it was necessary to wash him using ingenuity; the disappointment from the flood; a moving the insides to a big separate pot for disposal; a time was spent - separately - on wiping the table and on washing the floor.
Yes, it's necessary to think about it - to think about a greed, about its results, about something else...
I'll read a little, and then maybe I'll write something - with philosophical generalizations and conclusions... something instructive... Build a metaphor? To recall Pushkin? Don't chase cheapness?
A reading of two biographies of Ilya Repin - from Grabar and from Prorokova - in my plans.
Ilya Repin began his introduction to art with a watermelon. Igor Grabar quotes the words of Ilya Repin, who recalled his childhood:
"The first picture - a watermelon - suddenly turned into a living [picture] before our eyes; what was marked on it with a barely black line, Trofim [cousin] painted with green stripes, and the watermelon shone towards our eyes with a living color; we gaped...
But there was a miracle when Trofim painted the cut half of the second watermelon with red paint so vividly and juicily that we even wanted to eat watermelon; and when the red paint dried, he made black seeds with a thin brush on the red pulp in some places - a miracle! a miracle!
(...) To console me, Trofim left me his paints, and from then on I got so into them, into my paints, I so was clinging to the table, that they barely tore me off - for a dinner and shamed me, that I completely became wet as a mouse from zeal and that I became stupid with my paints these days."" [unofficial translation]
If you focus on Repin's biography, then if he wanted to buy a huge watermelon in a supermarket, he would certainly have paid attention to a pretty salesgirl with a beautiful hairstyle. And, maybe, he could even to paint a sketch, or an etude:
"A saleswoman girl taking a huge watermelon out of a cart."
By the way... the watermelon juice left a pleasant watermelon smell...
So, what do Igor Grabar and Sofia Prorokova write about Ilya Repin?...
October 10, 2021 20:57
Translation from Russian into English: October 10, 2021 23:04.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Арбуз и чтение двух биографий Ильи Репина (от Игоря Грабаря и от Софьи Пророковой). Зарисовка'.
{ 2448. Арбуз и чтение двух биографий Ильи Репина (от Игоря Грабаря и от Софьи Пророковой). Зарисовка.
MMСCCСXVIII. A watermelon and the reading two biographies of Ilya Repin (from Igor Grabar and from Sofia Prorokova). A drawing. (English). }