Remember the words of Tyutchev: “There is in the original autumn ...” What is there in it that many, many creative personalities sang it in their works?
Golden autumn! Every year it is new, unknown, but always infinitely beautiful with a unique riot of colors, touching transparent sadness of heaven, a subtle game of sun glare on gold foliage. How to reflect on the canvas the freshness of an autumn morning, the warm colors of yellow and crimson crowns, all the beauty of Russian nature? Autumn, the time of Indian summer, was admired by many writers, musicians and, of course, artists.
The story of one masterpiece
Here we have the Golden Autumn, Levitan. The painting was painted by the artist in the Tver province, near the estate of Gorki, in 1895. The canvas depicts the nature of the Central Russian strip, painfully native and familiar to every Russian landscape. The artist endowed all its simplicity with a bright lyrical mood. That is why subsequently Levitan's painting “Golden Autumn”, together with his other landscapes, introduced such a concept as “mood landscape” into Russian painting.
The variability and momentary state of nature is echoed in the soul of the artist. He transfers the variety of colors and forms of the surrounding world with great sensitivity to the canvas and, like a big sorcerer, conveys to the viewer the treasured and sacred that is hidden in every corner of nature. Looking at the landscape, you understand the whole depth of the artist’s love for autumn colors, you realize how inextricable the link is: golden autumn-Levitan. The picture is striking in its simplicity of motive and execution, and at the same time its impeccable taste and high skill. How much new is shown in the landscape seen by everyone, that which eluded attention.
About the landscape "Golden Autumn", Levitan
The picture takes us to an autumn birch grove growing along a narrow winding rivulet. She had not yet lost her yellow lace outfit, only two aspen in the foreground almost dropped the foliage. Dark as in the pool, water reflects coastal grasses and wildflowers. The reddish-pink bush against the dark background of the river seems to be an elegant wreath, ready to sail away. As you move toward the horizon, the water in the river brightens, the contrast of its calm bluish-blue surface with the gold of birches causes a festive mood, the joy of contemplating the landscape.
The sun is not visible, but its bright rays illuminate nature - always beautiful, always alive. The shadows from the trees are dark brown, short, the day is in full swing, and each viewer understands: a warm, dry and sunny day was captured by Levitan. Golden autumn is rich in such days, when multicolor colors caress the eyes, and the quiet shine of the day makes you forget that this beauty is fleeting, because soon the robbers of cold will appropriate all the gold from the trees. But while the air in the picture is fresh and transparent, one can freely view on the horizon the clouds easily floating across the sky, and the outlines of a distant forest, buildings and winter fields with green shoots.
Levitan managed to convey a sense of airy lightness, spaciousness, amazing joy from communicating with nature, and all this with just the colors of the landscape. Possessing a keen instinct and genuine love for Russian nature, the artist created his own style - the style of the Russian landscape, which is rightly called Levitan.
Fate painting
In 1896, at the exhibition of the Wanderers in the northern capital - Petersburg - and in other Russian cities, the Golden Autumn landscape, Levitan, was successfully exhibited. The painting was then bought by P. Tretyakov, and now it is exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery.