Moonlit Night. Highway. 1897-1898 Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s "Moonlit Night" painting

The painting was painted in 1897.

The artist understood all the charm of gentle nature. Its loveliness is transparent and its charm is imbued with a special sadness. His painting makes a special impression on us. It is very simple and natural, but it is in this extraordinary sophistication. It is important that for this sophistication Levitan did not make any effort. We do not feel any special contrivance. It emerged by itself.

In Levitan’s last paintings one can feel the hand of a virtuoso master.

The painting depicts the weather, quite pensive and really gloomy. We do not see the moon, it only illuminates the road. It is by the nature of the lighting that we can guess that the moon is not bright, but pale. The sky is not dark, as one would assume. It shimmers with reflections of moonlight. Light and dark are intertwined in the sky, giving it a special charm.

On either side of the road there are incredibly slender birches. Their trunks are almost white with only slight shades of gray. In the distance one can slightly see small houses. One can assume that there is a village there. There is no doubt that this moonlit road is a pleasant walk at night. Viewers of this painting just want to walk along it, admiring this wonderful sky, plunged into this wonderful atmosphere of solemn twilight.

Levitan masterfully used the colors. All the colors are quite cold, as if transparent. Nature depicted is quite ordinary, but in the moonlight pouring down on it, some worlds are intricately reflected. Trees and the road seem to be some kind of unusual and almost extraterrestrial, but at the same time as native and familiar.

Levitan’s skill - to depict familiar to absolutely everyone landscapes in a completely different way. He could find something special in the ordinary, feel its new sounding and pass it to the spectators of his works.