A genre scene by Ivan Vladimirov depicting a family enjoying a coastal holiday, rendered with loose, impressionistic brushwork.

Ivan Vladimirov, a Russian painter trained at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, is frequently associated with his detailed documentation of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war. However, his body of work also includes lighter genre scenes that capture the social atmosphere of the early twentieth century. This painting depicts a family group standing by the sea, likely along the Crimean coast, a region popular for summer retreats during this period.

The composition follows a traditional approach to genre painting. The figures are positioned in the foreground, with the man in a white naval-style cap and jacket gesturing toward the water, while the woman and child observe the waves. The brushwork is loose and impressionistic, focusing on the play of light across the water and the textures of the coastal rocks. The palette is dominated by soft blues, sandy yellows, and the muted greens of the cypress trees, which provide a sense of Mediterranean climate.

Vladimirov often utilised his technical skill to record the daily lives of his contemporaries. In this work, the focus remains on the leisure activities of the middle class. The scene avoids the political tension present in his more famous historical works, offering instead a quiet observation of a family outing. The treatment of the sea, with its white-capped waves breaking against the shore, demonstrates his ability to render natural movement through oil paint. The inclusion of flowering oleander bushes adds a specific regional detail, grounding the scene in a particular geographical context. This print captures the artist's lighter side, reflecting the aesthetic preferences of the interwar period in Russia.