The famous Russian painter Isaac Levitan is an unsurpassed master of the landscape. His amazing small-sized paintings, depicting familiar to everyone, such native and conspicuous faces of central Russian nature, amaze not only with the workshop brush, but with a special mood that only this artist could convey, transfer to the canvas. Levitan especially loved autumn, because this time of year is filled with inspiration, light sadness and lyricism. Like many other poets and artists, in it the transparent and cold autumn air aroused a thirst for creativity. Levitan created about a hundred canvases depicting views of autumn nature, but perhaps the most famous is the painting "Golden Autumn". Written in 1895, it is distinguished by a special brightness of colors, which is somewhat out of the general gamut of its autumn landscapes.
Description of the painting Levitan "Golden Autumn"
In the year of painting, the painter lived in a noble estate and fell in love with his neighbor. A stormy romance and vivid emotional experiences were reflected in the canvases created by the artist during this period. The painting "Golden Autumn" is very far from the sad, sad and pastel images of autumn nature, characteristic of the artist. In the glowing golden landscape, one feels excitement, a feeling of limitless happiness, joy, a surge of vitality. In this vivid emotionality lies the special value and charm of the work.
The golden bursts that adorned the grass and trees before the beginning of wilting are a special unique sign of this time of year. She was noticed and portrayed by many artists, but the painting "Golden Autumn" is special. In it, Levitan harmoniously interwoven solar joy and the very bright, lyrical sadness of the upcoming withering only with his characteristic methods.
The artist worked on each of his paintings for a long time and carefully, trying to convey the most subtle and hardly perceptible shades of mood in tune with nature. Therefore, his paintings make such a strong impression. It would seem that birch trees, a river, grass, familiar to everyone, are depicted so subtly and inspirationally that they inevitably awaken a spiritual response in the viewer. It was with this artist that such a concept as “mood landscape” came into Russian painting.
Isaac Levitan masterfully knew how to depict not only the sky, trees, water, grass and fields. His paintings are an integral, unified artistic image, filled with quite tangible light and air. The painting “Golden Autumn” creates a deep emotional and visual impression that is difficult to convey, as if it were not a painting, but a lyrical work that is difficult to analyze. In 1896, this painting was exhibited at the exhibition of the Wanderers. Here P. Tretyakov acquired it for his collection. Since then, the picture is included in the permanent exhibition of the State Tretyakov Gallery.
Composing a description of the painting “Golden Autumn”, each of us presents a landscape familiar to almost everyone from childhood, and before our eyes appear birch trees burning with gold on the banks of a dark blue river, cold, as if covered with a thin crust of ice, the sky and an indescribable feeling of light autumn sadness.