All the most valuable artistic heritage of Russia is carefully stored in the walls of the Tretyakov Gallery. The painting “Evening Ringing”, painted by Levitan, is a valuable copy located in the 37th hall. It is made with oil on canvas measuring 87x107.6 cm. The space of the picture is delimited by three plans, each of which could exist separately. The manner of execution is as realistic as possible, every detail is honed to the smallest detail.
Artist Biography
Isaac Levitan was born in 1860 in Lithuania. When the boy was 10 years old, his family moved to live in Moscow. Young Isaac very quickly became an orphan. At the age of 13, the boy goes to study at the Moscow School of Painting. The industriousness and talent of the young man arouse the sympathy of the masters and artists, and at the age of 17, Isaac is a pupil of A.K. Savrasov, and later - V.D. Polenova.
After graduating from college, Isaac Ilyich Levitan becomes a very recognizable and popular painter, participates in traveling art exhibitions. The most fruitful period of the master’s work is 1890-1895. In 1898 he was awarded the title of honorary academician of landscape painting.
Creative heritage
The main genre in which the master worked was landscape. However, in his track record there are also records that he was the author of the scenery for the Moscow Private Opera. Levitan was one of the few artists who managed, at a young age, to win the sympathy of Tretyakov, who acquired a painting from him and placed it as an exhibit in his own collection.
Since 1884, Levitan actively writes from life. However, for contemporaries, his landscape works are of most interest. His most popular painting is “The Evening Ring”, whose photo more than once became the cover of textbooks, calendars and postcards.
The artist drew his inspiration from the wealth of his surrounding nature. After he visited the Volga coast in 1987, his work list was replenished with the following canvases: “Pines”, “Oak”, “Evening on the Volga”, “Oak Grove. Autumn".
The subsequent works of the master fall on the period of 1995 and it can be safely stated that from that time on, his hand began to create real masterpieces, thanks to which he became famous throughout the world. It was during this period that he wrote “At the Whirlpool” and “Over Eternal Peace”, as well as “Vladimirka”, which he subsequently presented as a gift to the Tretyakov Gallery.
I.I. Levitan “Evening ringing”: description of the painting
The greatest landscape painter of the XIX century, a master with a subtle soul, I.I. Levitan with his work confirmed the boundless love of the motherland and the Russian people. His canvases are saturated with stormy colors inherent in nature and calm strokes that convey the warm attitude of the master to the world around him.
When it comes to religiosity and the influence of the church community on the life of the Russian peasant, I recall the image of a calm smooth surface at sunset and the iridescent domes visible on the other side of the river. This image is firmly rooted in the minds of most people who immediately remember that this is Levitan, "Evening Ringing."
The description of the picture comes down to three storylines. The central element of the canvas is the river dividing the two banks. In the distance, the viewer can watch the monastery spread among the trees, and in the foreground - the path leading to the reservoir. Two boats on the shore - a person's ability to cross the river and get to the monastery. In a way, this is a metaphorical depiction of the human path to God.
In 1892, after visiting several monasteries of the country, he decided to create Levitan “Evening Ringing”. The description of the painting as if conveys its meditative state from the dizzying chime of church bells, carried with a warm wind. The sun's rays fall on the domes and allow them to shine on the entire canvas. It can be seen that the picture was painted in the evening, when it was the turn of evening service. This idea formed the basis of the title of the work.
Idea of ​​creating a picture
The prototype that the artist used in his painting “The Evening Ring” was taken from the landscapes he saw when he lived in Zvenigorod. There he used to walk in the evenings near the Savvino-Storozhevsky monastery. It is important to understand that the image of that particular monastery is not visible on the canvas, but a generalized idea of ​​the evening life of ordinary peasants. The motive was so well matched that now, when you see the church domes towering above the tops of the trees, Levitan, “The Evening Ringing” is immediately remembered. The description of the picture may be ambiguous, but it is impossible to refute the fact of its ideological versatility.