The change of seasons is one of the favorite topics of Russian landscape painters, and this is not surprising. To catch the transitional states of nature that are invisible to an ordinary person, to convey the shades of mood, the subtleties of a particular color scheme - all this requires special skill and special emotional sensitivity of the painter. The most beneficial in terms of material selection, plasticity and expressiveness are recognized by many artists in the autumn and spring.
general characteristics
Savrasov and Levitan, Yuon and Vinogradov, Venetians and Ostroukhov, Kuindzhi, Shishkin - this is the most modest list of the best domestic masters. Considering their work, let's try to understand: what kind of Russian spring landscape is it? The paintings “Rooks Have Arrived”, “March”, “First Green” and others immerse us in a joyful and enlightened state of awakening nature, melting snow, sparkling of the sun on the first lush green. The holiday of life, light, joy, the anticipation of updating not only the outside world, but the artist’s inner human self - such, for example, is the Levitan spring landscape. Pictures “Spring. Big water ”,“ March ”literally radiate sunshine and warmth. We feel the spicy freshness and sweetness of the air, we hear the fraction of a drop and the sonorous rumble of birds. Each meeting with such a picturesque canvas helps to relive the happiness of life, to come into harmony with natural rhythms and laws. After all, the thirst for renewal, hope for the best, our own spiritual youth, we feel more clearly and sharply in the spring. Therefore, the spring landscape (paintings by artists or encounters with nature “live”) represents for most people the opportunity to start all over again, to enter a different channel, to become better, cleaner, more enlightened. We will try to understand and feel this, analyzing in this article some of these canvases.
Savras "Rooks"
The spring landscape of Savrasov’s painting, which, in fact, became the artist’s calling card, is pierced with motives of farewell to winter frosts and snows, with dull longing and inner cold. Written and exhibited in 1971, it immediately became the subject of discussion, approval and recognition of the true talent of its creator. This painting was called “Miraculous”, “True Spring” by Alexander Benois, a colleague of Savrasov in the “workshop of artists”. What do we see on it? It seems to be still boring winter snows, naked trees, scruffy miserable village houses, a church silhouette and a gray sky with rare blue gaps. Cold, damp, uncomfortable. And you take a closer look! And now other details are already becoming noticeable. A soft breath of warm spring breeze swept across his face. The pond has melted, in thawed snow, too - here and there - thaw areas are visible. And, most importantly, the branches of still-bare trees cheerfully and lively rooks - restless messengers of the coming spring. As Benoit notes, in recent years, before the appearance of the Savrasov oil painting, spring landscapes literally flooded art exhibitions. But it was Rooks that were marked by the seal of inspiration that distinguishes true masterpieces from fakes.
March motives in the work of Levitan
Picks up the spring baton of another coryphaeus of the landscape genre - Isaac Levitan. His “March” is a surprisingly bright, bright, festive picture. It is saturated with solar heat, radiates it and underlines with every detail the inevitable death of winter. The sky is deep, blue, melted away, the open doors of the house, the radiance of birch trunks in last year’s rare dry foliage, Savraska, peacefully dormant under the warm sun rays - all this leads us to think about the very near onset of really hot days. The Levitan spring landscape, the drawings of which are familiar to us from the school bench, is deeply Russian, national. But it is understandable and close to anyone who reaches for the beautiful and loves nature.
Features of children's perception
It is no secret that familiarizing oneself with works of art requires a lot of intense internal work. Our soul must work - learn to empathize, to sympathize, to have compassion. This is a complex process that needs to be taught to a person from an early age. And spring landscapes-pictures for children can help. A delicate and fragile snowdrop shaking its beautiful head on a thin dark green stalk; the image of gardening and field work, the first rain and the first rainbow, a little tit on a branch with small sticky leaves - such sketches create a close and recognizable image of spring, help to comprehend the peculiarities of changing the seasons and introduce the child to a new world, whose name is Nature and Life.