Vladimirka
Isaac Ilyich Levitan – Vladimirka
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Painter: Isaac Ilyich Levitan
Location: The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow (Государственная Третьяковская галерея).
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Levitan painted his famous "Vladimirka" in 1892. This painting is distinguished by its expressive depth of meaning and its special poetic sadness. Today it is called one of the best landscape paintings of the painter, but immediately after it was painted the critics found the work boring and unassuming and did not pay much attention to it. With this work, the painter commemorated the convicts who had been sent to hard labor in Siberia along this road until 1890.
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Description of Isaac Levitan’s painting Vladimirka
Levitan painted his famous "Vladimirka" in 1892. This painting is distinguished by its expressive depth of meaning and its special poetic sadness. Today it is called one of the best landscape paintings of the painter, but immediately after it was painted the critics found the work boring and unassuming and did not pay much attention to it.
With this work, the painter commemorated the convicts who had been sent to hard labor in Siberia along this road until 1890. In front of us a rather gloomy landscape: the end of summer, almost bare steppe, the road leading into the distance, giving way to the forest in front. Overhanging low, the gloomy sky with fleeing scraps of clouds evokes melancholy and sad memories. Endlessly stretched road, running beyond the horizon...
Levitanov’s legendary "Vladimirka" attracts the viewer with its rich historical content and tragic poetic notes. And in terms of picturesque picture is very interesting. It harmoniously combines refinement of drawing with the variety of colorful shades, from pale grayish, representing the sky to greenish - earthy, reflecting the steppe. The anxious mood of the overcast sky that looms menacingly over the winding ribbon of steppe road is also masterly conveyed. The monotonous dismal landscape is slightly enlivened by the light spot depicting the church, which is written out in front and the dark figure of a woman. She stands near a roadside cross in mute expectation. Many bitter destinies this road has seen, evoking bitter feelings of hopelessness and longing...
The entire canvas is saturated with the author’s selfless love for his homeland, his sincere compassion and sympathy for the grief of others, for the poor convicts, mothers, sisters and wives, patiently waiting for them by the road. The artist gave this painting to the Tretyakov Gallery.
COMMENTS: 3 Ответы
LEVITTAN
Vladimirkas melancholy is all-pervading.
Layers of organ music,
As if filling the air,
They have given us their laws.
Above the eternal and unbroken tranquility,
The celestial vault shimmers like an abyss.
Levitans vault is easily understood –
A vault given to us with landscape essence.
Pond, greenery, golden duckweed –
Dense, flowing silence,
And the light of the heavens – a bulwark of hope...
Enthusiasts highway, as the saying goes.
Levitan spent the summer of 1982 in Boldino, along the Nizhny Novgorod road. One day, returning from a hunt with Kuvshinnikova, they came out onto an old highway.
Evening was approaching. The gloomy sky created a melancholy mood.
Wait, said Levitan, isnt this Vladimirka? That very Vladimirka, along which so many unfortunate people once traveled to Siberia, their shackles clinking.
The first impression was instantaneous and very strong.
The subject captivated the artist so much that he worked with all his strength and completed the sketch of Vladimirka in just a few sessions.
The new painting, exhibited at the передвижной выставка (Traveling Exhibition) in the spring of 1893, received very cautious reviews from the press.
Tretyakov did not notice Vladimirka – or rather, he was embarrassed by the overt tendency conveyed in this painting. He did not buy it for the gallery, which he had already transferred to the ownership of the city by that time.
Then Levitan donated the painting to the gallery. He wrote to Tretyakov: Vladimirka will probably return from the exhibition in a few days, so please take her and reassure both me and herself.
S. A. Prokofova. Isaac Ilyich Levitan. 1990.
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The paintings subtext lies in its portrayal of the Vladimirka Road, which was historically the route for exiled peasants and political prisoners being sent to Siberia. The solitary figures visible on the road, one in the middle distance and another smaller one to the left, could be interpreted as those undertaking this arduous journey. The vastness of the landscape and the ominous sky evoke a sense of isolation, hardship, and the bleakness of their fate. The painting captures a mood of somber reflection on the suffering and resilience of the human spirit.