Tuesday 24 September 2013

Isaac Levitan (2)

   Russian landscape paintings flowered in art of I. Levitan, whose pictures gathered traditions of Russian landscape art and initiated the next stage of development of this art genre. Through his short life (1860 — 1960) Isaac Levitan managed to create his own style of landscape painting — known as landscape of mood. Landscape of mood paintings present nature as reflection of people's spirit and energy.
  Levitan studied in Moscow art school named after A. Savrasov and V. Polenov. Then he became a lecturer of this educational institution. From 1884 through 1888 he took part in exhibitions on a regular basis. While still at his art school he became friends with K. Korovin, M. Nesterov, architect F. Shehtel, N, Chekhov and his brother A. Chekhov, who became his best friend.
  Isaac Levitan is known for his dramatic pictures of Russian nature. Thus his paintings emphasize his talent to reflect people's feeling and emotions through images of landscapes. As a student of A. Savrasov Levitan managed to reflect all beauty and spirituality of Russian nature. He managed to highlight all innocence and frankness of nature in his paintings. Spirituality, reflection of feelings and fight for the new art trend, beauty and professionalism of works — these was the legacy of Levitan's creative work.
  The exhibition proposes to present Levitan's paintings as an element of Russian culture of the 19th century and to highlight similarities of his works with works of Levitan's contemporaries such as I. Shishkin, A. Savrasov, F, Vasiliev, V. Serov and K. Korovin who worked with him; and his art followers M. Nesterov, I. Grabar and others. Paintings of these artists illustrate development of Russian landscape art and its traditions. Russian landscape painting evolved from classicism to symbolism, including romantic and expressive landscape. All these landscape trends would flower and die creating new perceptions of art and recording them in landscape paintings.
   "Oak Wood"
"Flood Water"

No comments:

Post a Comment