Twilight. 1899 Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s painting "Twilight"

The story of the painting’s creation is rather prosaic. Isaac Ilyich Levitan painted it specifically as a gift for the then sick A.P. Chekhov, who was in a Crimean sanatorium and greatly missed his native land. Most likely, that is why Levitan portrayed in his painting, as close as possible all that is so close and familiar to Chekhov, and that subsequently contributed to his rapid recovery.

Artist amazingly accurate timing, to write this picture, when, the working day is over, as evidenced by the haystack, near the house, and the fact that there are no people around him, it’s dusk and the working day comes to an end. This is quite difficult, because the transition from day to night, namely twilight, is rather fleeting, so it was necessary to concentrate as much as possible and as quickly as possible, and it is important qualitatively carry out the work. In this painting we catch nature in a kind of transition process.

All of nature, as if, at this moment, begins to put on a nightgown, and prepares for sleep. The moon begins to rise in the sky, and behind the house is a tree, which most likely belongs to the family of conifers. But the beauty of this painting is that it conveys the very essence of the state of nature when twilight comes, and it does not matter what kind of tree it is, how long this house has been standing and so on.

Nature reveals itself to us as fully as possible, at this moment it is completely, under the "power" of the artist. All the mystery of nature, as if taken by surprise. The beauty that is observed in the change of the day dawn, on the evening mist, descending on the house, careless strokes, with which Levitan as if on purpose emphasized this trembling hands, quite exciting moment of inconceivable and mesmerizing beauty of nature. It becomes clear that small details, are not important, both in the picture and in nature. What is important is the general idea, the semantic load.