Winter in the woods. 1885 Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s painting "In Winter in the Woods".

An unusual landscape for this artist. And winter is somehow unaccustomedly depicted here - cold, unsightly, unaccustomed. Everything looks gray and uncomfortable. Everything looks not snowy, even the wolf is depicted the way we imagine a wolf to be in winter: a hungry hunter. The trees in this picture are also somehow bluish gray, just like the sky. The white snow only intensifies the sense of grayness and blueness of the tree trunks.

The sense of emptiness is intensified by the fact that the wolf prowls the forest in search of food, as a man in search of warmth and company. Loneliness, one solid winter loneliness.

It is not like Levitan, he is not such a harsh landscape painter. His work is always bright, juicy. But this canvas is really unbearably cold. Probably the artist at this time was not a good mood or was a black streak, because only having such a gloomy feeling could perform such a work. But this forest looks very different in the spring and summer: everything is green, beautiful and everyone is well fed. And most importantly, there is no feeling of loneliness, somehow easier on the heart.

No one liked the canvas at first, and that’s because it created an unpleasant feeling of coldness and loneliness. But soon the canvas was seen and even praised. At that time a lot depended on critics and specialists. If they approved it then the canvas would sell and if not it would stay in the artist’s archive. The canvas is now in the Tretyakov Gallery and still attracts attention, as it once did in his first show at the exhibition.

And still, whatever the work is, it’s done. It told us what the artist was thinking and what feelings plagued him. Just like that, through the landscape, he was able to give us his state of mind. And thanks to this we know that Levitan was not a simple landscape painter, but a true master.