The Rusalki

ARTIST'S NOTE:

This image grew out of the image 'Silence' when a friend contacted me and told me the woman in that image was like a 'Rusalka.' I had never heard of such a creature. Then a whole world opened up as I researched, with help from my friend, the whole realm of Slavic Myths and Legends. There are endless entities and spirits who are truly extraordinary. So, I decided to depict a whole group of these Rusalki, inspired by a 19th century painting, of the same title, by Iwan Nikolajewitsch Kramskoj, which I have included in the previews for reference.

Rusalki (plural)

The rusalka (plural: rusalki) is a typically feminine entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water. Folklorists have proposed a variety of origins for the entity, including that they may originally stem from Slavic paganism, where they may have been seen as benevolent spirits.

The original "rusalka" was an appellation used by pagan Slavic peoples, who linked them with fertility and did not consider rusalki evil before the 19th century. They came out of the water in the spring to transfer life-giving moisture to the fields and thus helped nurture the crops.

In 19th-century versions, a rusalka is an unquiet, dangerous being who is no longer alive, sometimes associated with the spirits of young women, who either committed suicide by drowning due to an unhappy marriage (they might have been jilted by their lovers or abused and harassed by their much older husbands) or who were violently drowned against their will (especially after becoming pregnant with unwanted children), must live out their designated time on Earth as rusalki.

I think these Slavic legends will be a rich ground for me in the coming months.

Steve Stone