Isaak Levitan "Evening Bell": description of the picture and the idea of its creation

All the most valuable artistic heritage of Russia is carefully preserved in the walls of the Tretyakov Gallery. The painting "Evening Bell", written by Levitan's hand, is a valuable specimen in the 37th hall. It is made with oil on a canvas in the size 87х107,6 cm. The space of a picture is delineated 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

Isaak 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 diligence and talent of the young man arouse the sympathy of the masters and artists, and already at the age of 17 Isaac is a pupil of AK. Savrasov, and later - V.D. Polenov.

After graduation, Isaak Ilich Levitan becomes a very recognizable and popular painter, participates in mobile art exhibitions. The most fruitful period of the master's work was 1890-1895. In 1898 he was awarded the title of honorary academician of landscape painting.

Creative heritage

The main genre in which master - landscape worked. 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 bought a painting from him and placed it as an exhibit in his own collection.

Since 1884 Levitan has been actively writing from nature. However, for contemporaries of greatest interest are his landscape works. His most popular painting is "Evening Bell", the photo of which has become the cover of textbooks, calendars and postcards.

The artist drew his inspiration in the richness of the surrounding nature. After he visited the Volga coast in 1987, his work list was supplemented with the following canvases: "Pines", "Oak", "Evening on the Volga", "Oak Grove. Autumn".

Subsequent work of the master falls on the period of 1995 and it can be safely asserted that from that time his hand began to create real masterpieces, thanks to which he became famous all over the world. It was during this period that he wrote "In the Whirlpool" and "Above Eternal Peace", as well as "Vladimirka", which he subsequently presented as a gift to the Tretyakov Gallery.

I.I. Levitan "Evening Bell": description of the painting

The greatest landscape painter of the XIX century, a master with a subtle soul, II. Levitan with his creativity confirmed his boundless love for his homeland and the Russian people. His paintings are impregnated with turbulent colors inherent in nature, and quiet strokes, conveying the warm attitude of the master to the world around him.

When it comes to the religiosity and the influence of the church community on the life of the Russian peasant, one recalls the image of a calm water surface at sunset and the overhanging canopies 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 Bell".

The description of the picture is reduced to three plot lines. The central element of the canvas is a river dividing the two banks. In the distance, the viewer can observe the monastery spread out among the trees, and in the foreground there is a path leading to the pond. Two boats on the shore - the ability of a person 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 Bell". The description of the picture seems to convey his meditative state from the dizzying chime of church bells, carried by a warm wind. The sun's rays fall on the domes and let them shine on the entire canvas. It can be seen that the picture was written in the evening, when it was the turn of the evening service. This idea formed the basis for the title of the work.

The idea of creating a picture

The prototype, which the artist used in his canvas "Evening Bell", 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 canvas shows an image of the wrong monastery, but a generalized idea of the evening life of ordinary peasants. The motif was so well chosen that now, when you see the church domes towering above the tops of the trees, one immediately remembers Levitan, "The Evening Bell". The description of the picture may be ambiguous, but it is impossible to refute the fact of its ideological versatility.