"Lake. Rus": a brief description of I. Levitan's painting

Levitan's painting "Lake. Rus' is a late work of the artist. He wrote it in the last year of his life. The canvas is considered unfinished, but nevertheless it is recognized as one of the author's best works. It was presented at a posthumous exhibition organized in Moscow, and rightly deserved the positive reviews of critics.

Creation and description

"Lake. Rus' is considered one of the largest paintings by the artist. In addition, she echoes with his other late works, primarily with the famous canvas "Over Eternal Peace". In both cases, the author devoted most of the composition to the image of a large lake with a beautiful church on the shore. Levitan used several sketches for his last work: a large carefully drafted draft, which is stored in Nizhny Novgorod, and a small sample preserved in a private Moscow assembly.

Cloth "Lake. Rus', like most of the artist's works, is devoted to the depiction of Russian nature. On the far shore is an autumn forest, wide fields and a white church. In the sky, Levitan wrote out whimsical clouds in a light blue sky. This beautiful landscape is reflected in the water, which emphasizes the beauty and grandeur of the rural edge.

Reviews

Work "Lake. Rus' was highly appreciated by critics. The well-known art critic V. Manin noted that this canvas marks a new stage in the development of Russian painting. He noted the artist's desire to capture the changeability of the world, the play of colors, the movement of air. According to him, Levitan departed from the emphasis on the storyline and fully concentrated on conveying feelings and experiences from contemplation of nature. Manin noted that the scale of the image combined with a sensitive perception of the surrounding world.

Features and Significance

One of the most illustrious landscape painters was I. Levitan. "Lake. Rus "became the result of his many years of searching in the image of his native country. That is why on the canvas there are traces of alterations and reprocessing. The size and wide scope of the landscape perspective is filled with philosophical meaning. At the same time, it is significant that the plot is almost entirely drawn from nature, in contrast to the author's previous works. The artist made only small changes, trying to reproduce most fully and reliably all the features of nature. Painting "Lake. Rus "is distinguished by the absence of a composite structure, like other canvases by the artist. It consists of sketches taken from other works, which are united in a single whole by the general sensation of the author. In this canvas, the mood of quietness, soothing to the author, is expressed by landscape means: the surface of the water, sunlight, transparent air.

The picture, summing up the works of Levitan, at the same time opens a new stage in the national painting. The manner in which this composition is performed resembles the French Impressionist school, which set the tone for European art of the turn of the century. The last work of the master proves that Russian artists, following this new trend, filled the style with a special philosophical sense.