Fresh wind. Volga. 1895 Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s painting "The Fresh Wind of the Volga

Isaac Levitan painted his painting entitled "Fresh Wind. Volga" in 1895. The canvas was painted for a very long time, and was completed only when all the hard work and searching had yielded its result. And the result was worth it, because the work is very deep and expressive. This picture is one of his few paintings, which came out on the rare optimistic, which can not fail to please the viewer familiar with his work, and to this day. The painting is very rich in content, with some expressive tones and even dressiness. The artist gives the viewer the image of a full-flowing river in Russia, where life does not die out, boats are moving rapidly, leisurely and majestically sailing steamboats. You can even feel how heavy the course of the steamboat-tugboat, which is forced to tow two sloppy barges.

The weather, meanwhile, remains pretty good, as you can tell by the accelerating clouds that glide across the sky, and the sails, meanwhile, at the barge, are filled with wind more and more, accelerating its course. Not far away is a painted boat, which adds to the ornamentation of the whole picture.  A white steamboat moves toward the viewer, and the smoke of another vessel can also be seen billowing behind it. Meanwhile, the wind intensifies and this is indicated by the white foam that forms on the surface of the water.

The color scheme is quite contrasting and done in cool tones, with mostly blue water shimmering perfectly with the green of the shores. The sky is also filled with blue in all shades, and thanks to the clouds, there is a sense of great space and monumentality of the whole picture.

It is also worth adding that this work was the first landscape that the artist performed not at rest, but in motion.