Fall: 1. 1896 Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s Autumn (October)

Autumn is one of the most enigmatic and colorful seasons of the year, which at all times has been sung by poets and inspired artists in their most beautiful paintings. Levitan was no exception.

He wrote the picture "Autumn. October," one of the most famous Russian impressionist painters, Levitan, in 1887. His landscapes, dedicated to autumn, differ from others in their vitality and sensuality. They were originally created for people, not for museums or private collections. Levitan was able to convey to the maximum the positive side of the autumnal season: the summer heat is replaced by a cool autumn, which will give the earth the coveted rains and motley decoration of trees.

Despite this, in the color scheme that the artist used, you can see a deep sadness, and even depression. All this is not by chance. The fact is that it was in 1897, the artist became seriously ill. It was creativity was his medicine, so all the work of Levitan of the period, despite the sensuality, permeated with a few sad colors and details. In addition, if you look closely at the painting "Autumn. October," you can notice a certain inner opposition, a real struggle of the artist with the disease: in the gray, "dead" branches, growing young green twigs, which shows hope and faith in a brighter future. The same meaning is invested in the bright stripe above the horizon.

But the greatest inconsistency is expressed in the image of the river and sky. Firstly, they are executed in halftones, where grayness turns into milky-white shades. Secondly, the reflection of the sky in the river water can also be conditionally divided into two parts: light and dark. Not without reason this particular work of the artist is called the antipode. Despite this, it is in it you can see the artist’s true love for his homeland.