Label Text:
Vassiliev arranged his old family photos around the central image featuring Lidia from Chekhov's story. One of the photos shows Vassiliev's step-grandfather Andrei Buznikov, who was a country doctor, like Chekhov. He worked for the zemstvo--the local government assembly--providing medical care to the poor. Vassiliev's grandmother Anna Mikhailovna, who appears in the photo with the three women, taught peasant children in a country school and, in this way, relates to Lidia who is also a teacher. Hence, Vassiliev's ancestors belonged to the same group of Russian intelligentsia as Chekhov's characters--a segment of society that would not endure the Soviet system.
Handwritten captions, clockwise from upper left:
o School for peasants
o "I value the most imperfect library or pharmacy more than all the landscapes in the world." [Lidia's words from Chekhov's story]
o Anna Mikhailovna and her colleagues
o Doctor of the zemstvo, Andrei Nikolaevich Buznikov
o In a hospital
o A. N. and his wife A. M. [Vassiliev's step-grandfather and grandmother]
o Going to see the patient
o From the family album of a zemstvo doctor
BJ, 2013
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2010.154 |
