Landscape with a river and a fisherman. 1859 Alexey Kondratievich Savrasov (1830-1897)

Description of Alexei Savrasov’s painting Landscape with River and Fisherman

"Landscape with River and Fisherman" was painted by the famous Russian landscape painter A. Savrasov in 1859. This painting is an important stage in his art and self-development. The viewer can see the shore of the Moskva River. Savrasov painted the landscape from life in the Moscow suburbs, near the village of Arkhangelsk.

The canvas depicts a quiet summer morning. The coolness of the morning, the freshness of the morning still resists the impending heat. The foreground of the painting is in the deep dark shadow, the sun is still rising. Then in the first rays of sunlight you can see the shore and its yellow sand. To the left is painted the steeply rising bank of the river, it is densely overgrown with various trees. The bend of the river is depicted - wide, calm and clear. The current seems to have stopped, as if not yet awake.

The trees growing on the bank can be seen in the reflection of the mirror-like water surface. In the background of the picture you can see the opposite bank of the Moskva River. The bank is hilly. A little further away you can see a forest. The sky is clear-blue with thick clouds hanging over it. The picture seems to be permeated with light, it is a lot of air and it is almost palpable. Savrasov himself said that in the landscape it is important to prescribe exactly the air. And no matter how beautifully painted landscape and trees, without air you get a bad landscape.

In the foreground of the canvas lonely fisherman with his catch and tackle. He seems insignificantly small in comparison to the vast nature and the river. The painting demonstrates the importance of nature, its supremacy over the human world. The fisherman walks calmly and slowly, he does not disturb the peace of nature, the river and the trees reflected in it. The painting shows a calm early morning.

The color tones used by the artist in this painting are mostly light and gentle (not counting the shadows). The contrast of colors, although present, is harmonious. The artist himself was a sensitive and lyrical person, which he successfully transferred to the canvas.