Gypsy (2021) Painting by Khristina Budnik

For centuries, the origin of the Gypsies was shrouded in mystery. Appearing here and there, the camps of these dark nomads with unusual customs aroused the curiosity of the settled population. Trying to unravel this phenomenon and penetrate the mystery of the origin of the Gypsies, many authors built the most different and incredible hypotheses. In the 19th century, when, thanks to scientific research, a well-founded answer was found, the most fantastic stories were still being born. This accumulation of outright superstitions and dubious hypotheses was destroyed with the beginning of serious research into the Gypsy language. Scientists already had some ideas about it in the Renaissance, but at that time they did not associate it with any group of languages ​​and did not establish the place of its origin. Only at the end of the 18th century. on the basis of scientific data, it was possible to establish the origin of the Gypsies. Since then, prominent linguists have confirmed the conclusions of these first research scientists: in terms of grammar and vocabulary, the Gypsy language is close to Sanskrit and such modern languages ​​as Kashmiri, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and Nepali. And if modern scientists have no doubts that Gypsies come from India, many questions related to ethnography, sociology and the history of the first migrations of Gypsies are still waiting to be answered. The leading role in establishing the origin of the Gypsies is assigned to linguistics, but such scientific disciplines as anthropology, medicine, and ethnography can also make their contribution. Written evidence about the era that could be called the "prehistoric period of the Gypsies" is very scarce. The ancient Indian authors paid primary attention to the gods and kings, not to the people known by the names of aott, jat, luli, nuri, or dom. However, already from the time of the first migrations to the west, we have somewhat more accurate data about the Gypsies, contained, first of all, in two Persian texts, in which history and legend merged together.
HISTORICAL STATEMENT: AMERICAN REALISM
A 20th-century U.S. movement embracing realistic depiction whose adherents include members of the Ashcan School, as well as George Bellows, Robert Henri, Edward Hopper, and John Sloan.

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