Sight + Sound – Digital Guide – Hartmann’s Artwork

Gnomus

The first movement, "Gnomus", is inspired by a sketch of Hartmann's depicting a gnome walking with a cane. The sketch was probably intended as a design for a wooden nutcracker or children's toy.

The Old Castle

Viktor Hartmann sketched and painted many images of castles. This one, the one most commonly associated with the second movement of Mussorgsky's suite, is a stage design for Mikhail Glinka's opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. It depicts the castle of the evil wizard Chernomor, the opera's main antagonist.

Tuileries

The third movement of Pictures draws its inspiration from Hartmann's depiction of children playing in the Tuileries Garden near the Louvre in Paris. Hartmann's sketch has been lost.

Bydlo

The fourth movement of Mussorgsky's suite is titled "Bydlo", a Polish word for cattle, though it is often called "The Ox-Cart." It is based on a watercolor painting, now lost, of a traditional polish wagon pulled by oxen. The movement is now often associated with a similar painting by Vincent van Gogh, shown here.

Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks

The lighthearted "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks" movement is based on a sketch of Hartmann's showing a child dressed as a chicken inside of an eggshell, with only arms, legs, and head visible. This sketch is a costume design of Hartmann's for child dancers in the ballet Trilby.

Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle

This movement is inspired by two portraits by Hartmann that Mussorgsky himself owned. The portraits depict two Polish Jews, one rich and one poor. In his interpretation of the portraits, Mussorgsky contrasts the two figures, creating a musical conversation between them.

Limoges

The seventh movement of Pictures is inspired by a set of drawings Hartmann sketched while in Limoges, a city in central France. The movement is subtitled "The Marketplace" and illustrates a lively conversation between several women in the city's market.

Catacombs

This movement, inspired by Hartmann's drawing of himself exploring the Paris catacombs, is subtitled "Cum mortuis in lingua mortua" (With the Dead in a Dead Language). The subtitle refers both to the fact that it is in Latin, unlike the titles of the other nine movements, and to an imagined conversation between Hartmann's spirit and the skulls in the catacomb.

The Hut on Hen's Legs

This energetic movement is inspired by a cannibalistic witch from Russian folklore, the Baba-Yaga. The sketch Mussorgsky chose is that of a clock in the form of the Baba-Yaga's hut, which is said to have the legs of a chicken.

The Great Gate of Kiev

For the final movement of his suite, Mussorgsky chose what Hartmann himself described as his finest work, a design for a gate outside of Kiev commemorating Czar Alexander II. The movement recalls the "Promenade" theme in grandiose fashion, with loud brass chorales and a tolling bell to represent the bells shown in Hartmann's design.

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