He wrote the beautiful painting "Over Eternal Peace" by Levitan. The painting, on which he began to work in the summer of 1893, is now stored in the Tretyakov Gallery. Isaac Ilyich then lived on Tver land among forests, rivers and lakes.
During one of the walks in the vicinity, the artist saw Lake Udomle. There is a poor rural graveyard on the shore, a large thundercloud above the water . A strong wind rocked the tops of the cemetery grove. It is this species that gives Levitan the idea of a new large picture.
A piece speaking to the viewer
The artist’s brush makes the landscape space "Above Eternal Peace" speak. Levitan, whose picture was presented to a wide circle of viewers, hoped to tell them about the most important things for a person. And when this work appears in the exhibition of the Wanderers in 1894, penetrating critics will see that this is not even a landscape - it is a picture of the human soul.
The picture "Above Eternal Peace" is appreciated primarily by the way its colors glow. It must be said bluntly that Isaac Ilyich Levitan is the artist who made the greatest discovery in Russian art. He rediscovered what subsequently a remarkable researcher of ancient Russian culture, academician Dmitry Sergeyevich Likhachev called landscape thinking.
The contrast of two worlds
It turns out that in Russia there has long been an ancient tradition of contemplating spatial images. Observation of nature, as they used to say in old times, with “smart eyes,” that is, speculation. Or else - spiritual reflection on the mysterious things surrounding a person. About God and soul, about life and death, about the transience of earthly existence.
By contrasting the solemn height of the sky and the deserted, almost lifeless space of the lake, the tragic structure of the picture, written by Isaac Levitan, “Above Eternal Peace”, is created. Because the viewer here feels the presence of two worlds: time and eternity. The confrontation of simple human concerns to divine perfection.
"Above eternal rest." Levitan. Description of Special Spiritual Perception
This sky, covered with formidable swirling clouds, has a surprisingly accurate poetic analogy of Fedor Ivanovich Tyutchev: “I look at inaccessible bulks for hours ...” In the masterpiece “Over Eternal Peace” Levitan, whose picture clearly conveys a feeling of thirst for heaven, silence and eternal peace, could, just like a talented poet, share his feelings. The impressions he received while contemplating this stormy sky and the beauties of the Russian landscape.
The lake on the canvas looks endless, almost like a sea. And the church crowning the hillside with a cross on the onion dome is like a ship. According to a long-standing evangelical tradition, the head of the church is Christ, and only he can save a person whose life is nothing but a difficult and dangerous journey through the sea of life.
Sentimentality or a unique gift
Isaac Ilyich Levitan is an artist with a unique gift of spiritual perception of the world. And the picture "Over Eternal Peace" indisputably testifies to this. But there is one more very valuable evidence that is contained in the memoirs of the artist Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin, who knew Isaac Ilyich closely.
His memoirs describe how Levitan could lie on the grass for hours in the summer and peer into the vast expanses of heaven. The sky delighted and inspired him. These are amazing memories. Because, in fact, one can look at Russian nature with different eyes, and everyone perceives it in their own way.
Looking sentimental, many people feel a sweet sadness in their hearts, and some even cause tears. Also, Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin, seeing them in the eyes of Levitan, decided that Isaac Ilyich was too sentimental. But the creator of the painting “Above Eternal Peace” looked very differently at the surrounding nature. He contemplated the Russian landscape as God's creation. And not sweet sadness, but a deep longing for something higher and unattainable filled him. So deeply religious people look at the icon.
Testament to descendants
This is an infinitely talented masterpiece - "Above Eternal Peace"! Levitan, whose picture today occupies one of the most honorable places in the halls of the famous Tretyakov Gallery, was a real great man, a genius and God's chosen one. Everything that he created is insanely beautiful, new and unusual. Spectators contemplating his creations are overwhelmed with a variety of feelings. Someone thinks about unfulfilled hopes, others - about the meaning or worthlessness of human life.
But the most remarkable thing written by Isaac Ilyich, of course, is the creation “Above Eternal Peace”. The brightest and most joyful picture, which remained as a testament for posterity, so that they as often as possible looked at the sky and admired its vast expanses, not forgetting the meaning of their own existence.