A series of Russian folk clothes sketches by Fyodor Solntsev as a historical and ethnographic source

The article is devoted to a series of ethnographical sketches of Russian peasant and merchant costumes, made by an artist and archaeologist F.G. Solntsev. The drawings arouse great interest of art historians, costume historians, as well as specialists studying traditional material culture and exploring sources for the practical reconstruction of folk clothes. Unfortunately, the collection of drawings has not been fully published and remains little studied. Currently it is stored in the New York Public Library. For the domestic researchers, it became available not so long ago thanks to the development of digital technologies. The publication of drawings on the NYPL web-site in a quality suitable for scientific work allows them to be studied and included in the circulation of research activities. Fyodor Grigoryevich Solntsev is known primarily for his sketches of ancient architectural monuments, icons, objects of decorative and applied arts and ancient weapons. Drawings by F.G. Solntsev are characterized by exceptional accuracy and great attention to detail. During the study of the complex of pictorial and tangible materials of the 19th century devoted to folk costume, and comparing it with watercolors from a series of ethnographic sketches, it became obvious that only one part of the drawings was made according to field observations during his travels in Russia. It is distinguished by the documentary character. As a result of the study and analysis, the series of drawings “Folk Clothes” was relatively divided into three parts: drawings that can be considered ethnographically reliable; drawings that are definitely of a secondary nature, “copy”, that is, created not as a result of direct sketches from the nature, and for which primary sources were found; images about which it is not yet possible to say with certainty whether they are original or secondary. Thus, a series of ethnographic sketches of folk clothes by F.G. Solntsev cannot be used as unconditional evidence, for example, in the attribution or examination of artistic values, without approaching this critically.