Golden Autumn. Slobidka. 1889 Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s painting Golden Autumn Sloboda

The artist was very fond of traveling along the Volga. The Volga became like a heroine for Levitan. In his canvases he repeatedly depicted landscapes that touched this mighty river. And this time, when the artist was in his favorite place Plyos on the Volga, he wanted to paint this picture.

This is a very poignant chord, writing this painting. Because the painting itself is contradictory. On the one hand Levitan depicted the revelry of nature, a bright autumn brief pore, on the other - the usual life of a simple Russian village.

The painting depicts the huts of the peasants, the passing road, the yellowing forest. In the depths of the picture is a tranquil color scheme.

Here the artist has depicted the grandeur of this vast space. And the quiet expectation that cold and rainy days will soon come.

It is as if the painting shows the cyclical nature of life. The village stands in the middle of verdant fields. There is sunshine all around, though the warmth of it is no longer there. A slender birch tree stands to the left with its crown of yellowed leaves.

It is a bright spot in relation to other trees that have already shed their leaves, and they stand darkened, as if waiting for the approach of winter, to go into hibernation until the spring awakening.

And along the lopsided cottages stretches a country road, which seems to stall because of a dilapidated wattle and daub that is hooked to the edge of the hut, and then appears between the fields and is lost somewhere on the horizon.

A common everyday picture. Once again, the master emphasized that life is a natural course of events. And that summer succeeds autumn, etc. That is to say, it is the uninterrupted cycle of life in nature.

The artist, who adored mundane motifs, all the time developed this lyrical theme. And the teacher who inspired Levitan to paint landscapes was the wonderful artist A.K. Savrasov.