What impact do the paintings of Savrasov, Levitan and other famous landscape painters have on people?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

To understand these landscapes, one does not need any artistic education, or general erudition, or even knowledge of the artist's name. The picture itself appeals to the viewer, evoking in him long-forgotten or, on the contrary, carefully preserved feelings, touches in some kind of strings of the human soul, intimate, personal. But the emotions caused by the mood landscapes, nevertheless, turn out to be similar to those experienced by others when looking at these canvases. And also with those who once made the artist take up the brush.

What are mood landscapes, and who made them appear

When, when looking at a landscape, the heart suddenly squeezes, grips with sadness or, conversely, a feeling of happiness arises, when it seems that the picture almost conveys sounds, the freshness of the wind, cold or heat - this is the landscape of mood. This trend in the work of artists of the XIX-XX centuries began to be distinguished recently. Previously, the landscape did not play an independent role, becoming the background for a portrait, biblical or historical subjects. But thanks to the departure from generally accepted standards in painting, the development of their own views on the role of works of art in human self-knowledge, the landscape began to develop, turning into an independent and promising genre.

For example, when it was difficult to speak directly about the prison, convict side of Russian reality, the painting "Vladimirka" by Isaac Levitan, which depicted only a road going into the distance, could enter into a silent dialogue with the viewer. from the Academy of Arts of Masters, united in the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. And no less important was the instinct of the patron Pavel Tretyakov, who unmistakably felt the mood of the landscape and bought their canvases from the authors, prompting them to continue working in the same direction. This is how masters appeared in Russian culture, creating almost all of their works in the mood landscape genre.

The skill of such landscape painters was not limited to an accurate reproduction of a natural landscape or to capturing unique and rare natural objects - this is their difference from artists who made documentary accuracy their main task. subordinated to one general mood, it also reflected the character of the artist himself. In mood landscapes, the personality of their creator is always visible, and nature is depicted in them as a person sees it in a certain state of mind. This is achieved in different ways - by the peculiarities of the composition, rhythm, "air" and "light", saturation or rarefaction. It makes no sense to look for “speaking” details, symbols and riddles in mood landscapes, the main, all-embracing idea is about the relationship of a person's inner life with the surrounding nature.

One of the founders of the genre of "mood landscapes" is considered Nikolai Nikanorovich Dubovskoy, who chose painting in spite of family tradition. Born into a Cossack family, he was obliged to devote himself to military service, but while studying at the gymnasium, secretly, he constantly painted. By the age of seventeen, he managed - not without the help of teachers - to persuade his father to give permission to study at the capital's Academy of Arts.

Dubovskoy brilliantly showed himself during his studies, and after, when he chose landscape painting for himself as the main genre of creativity, he managed to achieve recognition and success. Now almost forgotten, Dubovskoy was at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, perhaps the most popular among landscape painters. In addition, he was one of the leaders of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Being a romantic, Dubovskoy also perceived landscapes as a means of expressing ideas of romanticism, when nature becomes an integral part of the personality, changing, struggling with everything rational and frozen. In the works of Dubovsky, the image of the sky often appears, with which, in terms of the degree of variability, only the sea can compete.

An anecdote from the life of Dubovsky has survived when, getting ready for his own wedding, he suddenly saw a stunning view from the window, grabbed a sketchbook and … forgot about the time. The wedding, fortunately, took place anyway. For the painting "Quiet", in which, according to Levitan, "you feel the very elements", Dubovskaya was awarded the Great Silver Medal of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900.

Alexey Savrasov, Vasily Polenov

Alexey Kondratyevich Savrasov, from a family of merchants Sovrasov (the artist later changed the spelling of his surname himself), also acted against his father's will, choosing the path of an artist instead of trade. His work brought him awards and the title of academician, and finally Savrasov headed the landscape class of the Moscow School of Painting.

He was one of the founders of the Itinerant Association. Savrasov was especially popular with his painting "View of the Kremlin from the Crimean Bridge in inclement weather", in which, according to contemporaries, the moment was unusually truthfully conveyed - one could guess both the movement of clouds and the noise of tree branches. Savrasov's landscapes are written in a lyrical spirit, reflecting both the artist's own experiences and his boundless love for his native land.

Another teacher of the Moscow School, later recognized as a master of "intimate landscape", was Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov, who, although he was born in the capital, had a great love for nature and kept in his memory childhood impressions of his trips to Karelia and the Tambov province, where he stayed at his grandmother's estate. In 1890, Polenov realized his dream and bought his own estate - in the Tula province on the banks of the Oka, where he built a house and a workshop.

Isaac Levitan, Konstantin Korovin

Both Savrasov and Polenov were the teachers of the great Russian landscape painter Isaac Ilyich Levitan. His paintings begin acquaintance with Russian landscape painting - and not by chance. Levitan passionately loved Russian nature, heard "her music", was imbued with her silence. Already at the age of 16, he wrote one of his first masterpieces - “Sunny Day. Spring ", and at 19 -" Autumn day. Sokolniki”, a painting that was the first of Levitan's to get into Tretyakov's collection.

"Vladimirka" is called the Russian historical landscape - the picture depicts both the past and the present of Russia. While the artist was painting this landscape, Vladimirka was no longer the path along which convicts were sent to the east: the railway was used. But the memory of the past seems to be dissolved in the landscape itself - alarming, gloomy, almost without a shadow of hope.

Another "mood landscape painter", like Levitan, who studied with Savrasov at the school of painting and sculpture, is Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin, a Russian impressionist. He came from a merchant family, after studying in Moscow he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but was disappointed with the teaching methods in it and, after studying for several months, left.

At thirty-three years old, Korovin traveled across the Russian and foreign North, from where he brought several landscapes. In 1902, the artist bought a house in the village of Okhotino, Yaroslavl province. "…" - this is how Korovin wrote more than a century ago.

And more about the mood that the paintings create: what a noble old age looked like.