Vasilyev's painting “The Thaw”: poetry of change

Among the Russian examples of landscape painting, amazing foreigners with dynamics and penetration, an exceptional place belongs to the canvases of the young and undoubtedly brilliant painter Fyodor Vasilyev. If not for the early death from tuberculosis (at 23), he, according to Kramskoy, would have made a revolution in the landscape genre.

the thaw of vasiliev
Yes, he was close to that. Once you see these canvases, it is impossible to forget them. And the hand of the master cannot be confused with the creative manner of other famous landscape painters. Such is the picture "Thaw." Vasilyev wrote it in the winter of 1871, after a summer trip along the Volga, during which the artist reveled in the splendor of nature. He absorbed the impressions in order to synthesize them in works filled with the finest shades of colors and moods.

Distinguished landscape

Vasilyev’s painting “The Thaw” was awarded the first prize among others presented by great masters of painting at the OPKh exhibition (Imperial Society for the Promotion of Artists). Patron Pavel Tretyakov bought a landscape for his collection long before the exhibition. Grand Duke Alexander, who was to enter the Russian throne ten years later, was so impressed by the painting that he ordered a copy for the imperial house. In the author’s repetition, the canvas acquired a softer, touching sound than its “first-born twin”. It was he who was decided to send to an international exhibition held in the UK. From abroad, the landscape also returned with a first prize and enthusiastic responses from reviewers. Today, Vasilyev’s first picture, “The Thaw,” is exhibited at the Tretyakov Gallery, and her “double” has found a place in the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg. What was so about this canvas that fascinated the eminent audience?

thaw of basil

Mystery of attraction

Let's take a look at this unusually wide format and deep content canvas. In the middle of the cold Russian winter, a thaw occurred. Nature is still covered in deep sleep, shackled in ice and hoarfrost. A sudden “unplanned” awakening takes her by surprise. Dark thawed holes, a damp mess of snow on a driveway immediately attacked by birds, a faint golden spot of light somewhere above, these spring changes are still deceptive, but inevitable.

Philosophical sound

Vasiliev’s painting “The Thaw” was created during the period of the great reforms in the country, which in their own way will be reminded of the Khrushchev “thaw” in the twentieth century. The surge in political life of then-Russia was based on liberal trends that directly related to the situation of a huge part of the people. As you know, the reforms disappointed, but prompted people to self-determination, the choice of their future path.

The thaw in the middle of winter, the streams of melted snow melting under which the road was barely found, forced the peasant and the tiny girl to stop in indecision. Where to go? How? They will probably go on a journey, but it will not be easy for them.

Undoubtedly, the idea of ​​the picture is not exhausted, as is commonly believed, by the maxim of “painful peasant life”. Here there is the thought of the progressive movement of nature and history, which pushes time forward through stops and obstacles. Is this why Vasilyev’s The Thaw painting has gained worldwide significance?

f vasiliev thaw

Artistic Solution

Impressionistic techniques of the same "mood painting", which must be mentioned when speaking of Vasiliev’s canvases, the author uses in this work. The author depicts not so much objects as the light and air enveloping them. Thanks to this, the outlines are extremely realistic, mobile, expressive. The space of the canvas is divided into two parts - earth and sky. In the center there is a tall tree, on which the forest, lost in the bluish depths, breaks off, and a stream pouring out of a melted pond visually creates a cross, absorbing the vertical and horizontal. The tones gently turning into each other combine the anguished beauty of the landscape, the croaking sounds of ravens, the soft murmur of melt snow into one mighty symphony of grandeur and defenselessness, which F. Vasiliev so acutely understood and masterfully portrayed. The Thaw was highly appreciated by the friend and teacher of the artist Ivan Kramskoy, calling her strong, impudent, full of great poetic content and a decisively new work.


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