First come first served basis. Levitan

Description of Levitan’s painting “Above Eternal Peace”

Isaac Ilyich Levitan is a master of mood landscape.
His strokes include many landscapes of Russian nature.
The work "Above" eternal peace"is considered the most Russian painting ever written.

In this plot of the painting, the artist contrasts the triumphant eternity of nature with the absurdity of human life.
Earthly passions seem insignificant and ridiculous in contrast to the formidable eternity capable of swallowing everything.

The picture is painted in cool shades and not very bright colors.
The upper part of the picture is occupied by cold, massive, leaden clouds.
It seems as if they are about to fall to the ground from their heaviness.
There is a steep cliff in the foreground.
There is a small church and a cemetery on it.
Apparently they have long been forgotten.
The church is very old and rotten, and the cemetery is abandoned, as can be seen from the bent crosses.
The space from the cliff to the clouds is occupied by a lake.
Just looking at him sends shivers down to the bones.
A gloomy and cold vast expanse.
You can see how the wind bends the cemetery trees to the ground.

Levitan’s painting “Above Eternal Peace” evokes many different thoughts.
And perhaps while drawing, its author experienced his own emotional experiences and fears, but whoever looks at it now, feels the same for himself.
Some think about their unfulfilled hopes and dreams, others are saddened by their insignificant life, for others it is like an impetus for a new beginning.
The start of something better and colorful, not dark and cold.
But all these thoughts are united by one, the most basic and final one.
Everyone, looking at the picture, thought about the transience of their existence.
Time does not stand still.
You need to live today and now.
Massive clouds will always be replaced by bright skies and sunshine.
Make your life brighter.

Above Eternal Peace, 1894

Above eternal peace is one of the darkest, and, at the same time, significant work Levitan, about which he himself wrote in a letter to Pavel Tretyakov: “I am all in it. With all my psyche, with all my content...” Levitan painted this picture to the sounds of the Funeral March from Beethoven’s “Eroic Symphony.” It was to such solemn and sad music that the work was born, which one of the artist’s friends called “a requiem to himself.”

Above Eternal Peace, 1894. Painting by Levitan. Masterpieces of Russian landscape, photo - Isaac Levitan. Official website. Life and creativity. Painting, graphics, old photos. - Above eternal peace. High cape, water, gray lake, shore, chapel, land, melancholy, darkness, loneliness. Isaac Levitan, painting, masterpiece, drawings, photo, biography.

Mikhail Nesterov about Isaac Levitan:

“It’s always pleasant for me to talk about Levitan, but it’s also sad. Just think: after all, he was only a year older than me, and after all, I’m still working. Levitan would have worked, too, if the “evil fate”, early death had not taken us away , all those who knew and loved him, all the old and new admirers of his talent - a wonderful artist-poet. How many wondrous revelations, how many things that had not been noticed by anyone before him in nature, his keen eye, his big sensitive heart, Levitan was not only beautiful. an artist - he was a faithful comrade-friend, he was a real full-fledged person..."

A.A. Fedorov-Davydov about Isaac Levitan:

"Isaac Levitan is one of the most significant not only Russian, but also European landscape painters of the 19th century. His art absorbed the sorrows and joys of his time, melted what people lived with, and embodied the artist’s creative quest in lyrical images native nature, becoming a convincing and full-fledged expression of the achievements of Russian landscape painting..."

Alexander Benois about Isaac Levitan:

“The most remarkable and precious among Russian artists who brought the life-giving spirit of poetry into stale realism is the untimely death of Levitan. For the first time, Levitan attracted attention at the Traveling Exhibition of 1891. He had exhibited before, and even for several years, but then he was no different from our other landscape painters, from their general, gray and sluggish mass. The appearance of “The Quiet Abode” produced, on the contrary, a surprisingly vivid impression. It seemed as if the shutters had been removed from the windows, as if they had been opened wide, and a stream of fresh, fragrant air poured into the stale air. exhibition hall, where there was such a disgusting smell from the excessive number of sheepskin coats and greased boots..."

Isaac Levitan. Over eternal peace. 152 x 207.5 cm. 1894. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Isaac Levitan (1860-1900) believed that the painting “Above Eternal Peace” reflected his essence, his psyche.

But they know this work less than " Golden autumn" and "March". After all, the latter are included in school curriculum. But the picture with grave crosses did not fit in there.

Time to get to know Levitan's masterpiece better.

Where was the painting “Over Eternal Peace” painted?

Lake Udomlya in the Tver region.

I have a special relationship with this land. Every year the whole family vacations in these parts.

This is exactly what nature is like here. Spacious, saturated with oxygen and the smell of grass. The silence here rings in my ears. And you become so saturated with space that you hardly recognize the apartment. Because you need to squeeze yourself back into the walls covered with wallpaper.

The landscape with the lake looks different. Here is a sketch of Levitan, painted from life.

This work seems to reflect the artist’s emotions. Vulnerable, prone to depression, sensitive. It reads in somber shades of green and lead.

But the picture itself was already created in the studio. Levitan left room for emotions, but added reflection.

The meaning of the painting “Above Eternal Peace”

Russian artists of the 19th century often shared ideas for paintings in correspondence with friends and patrons. Levitan is no exception. Therefore, the meaning of the painting “Above Eternal Peace” is known from the artist’s words.

The artist paints the picture as if from a bird's eye view. We look down at the cemetery. It personifies the eternal peace of people who have already passed away.

Nature is opposed to this eternal peace. She, in turn, personifies eternity. Moreover, a terrifying eternity that will absorb everyone without regret.

Nature is majestic and eternal in comparison with man, weak and short-lived. The endless space and giant clouds are contrasted with a small church with a burning flame.

The church is not made up. The artist captured it in Plyos and moved it to the expanse of Lake Udomlya. Here in this sketch she is close up.

It seems to me that this realism adds weight to Levitan’s statement. Not an abstract generalized church, but a real one.

Eternity did not spare her either. It burned down 3 years after the artist’s death, in 1903.

It is not surprising that such thoughts visited Levitan. Death stood relentlessly over his shoulder. The artist had a heart defect.

But don’t be surprised if the picture evokes in you other emotions that are not similar to Levitan’s.

At the end of the 19th century, it was fashionable to think in the spirit of “people are grains of sand that mean nothing in life.” huge world».

Nowadays the worldview is different. Still, a person open space goes out onto the Internet. And robotic vacuum cleaners roam our apartments.

The role of a grain of sand does not suit modern man at all. Therefore, “Above Eternal Peace” can inspire and even calm. And you won’t feel fear at all.

What is the pictorial merit of the painting?

Levitan is recognizable by its refined forms. Thin tree trunks unmistakably identify the artist.

In the painting “Above Eternal Peace” there are no close-ups of trees. But subtle forms are present. This is a narrow cloud across the thunderclouds. And a barely noticeable branch from the island. And a thin path leading to the church.

Over eternal peace. 1894

Those above us
as in ancient times, the heavens -
And they pour us the same
the blessings of their streams...

V.G. Benediktov "And now..."

Painting "Above Eternal Peace"(1894, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) - the third most large-scale painting of Levitan’s “dramatic cycle”. In a letter to Tretyakov, he even admitted that in this picture he was “whole, with all his psyche, with all his content.” Depicting a cape with a dilapidated wooden chapel and a cemetery against the backdrop of the matte lead waters of a lake extending into the deserted distance, above which heavy clouds swirl in the gloomy sky dark clouds Levitan very expressively conveyed the feeling of discomfort of this harsh space.

The picture allows you to understand what the artist felt at the moments when he was overtaken by attacks of mortal melancholy and loneliness. At the same time, the feeling of loneliness and powerlessness in Levitan’s film is not overwhelming. Together with him in her figurative structure live other experiences of the artist, which gave the large canvas, in comparison with the sketch, a more transpersonal, philosophically calm and courageous emotional and figurative meaning. The composition of the canvas is strict and clear: a high and majestic, wonderfully painted sky, to which a chapel with a glowing light at the end raises its head, bringing into the picture, along with the feeling of loneliness and peace of the graves, the artist’s “heartfelt thought” “about the light that darkness cannot embrace,” about the eternal thirst for warmth, faith, hope, the flame of which people light again and again, from century to century, “like a candle from a candle” (L.N. Tolstoy).

Vladimir Petrov

Levitan began working on this painting near Vyshny Volochok, near Lake Udomlya, where he lived with Kuvshinnikova in 1893. The painting obviously ended in Moscow in December 1893 and at the very beginning of 1894, which is indicated by the author in the painting. The painting “Above Eternal Peace” completed the cycle of works of 1892-1894, in which Levitan sought to express large and deep thoughts about the relationship of human existence to eternal life nature.

Kuvshinnikova testified in her memoirs that in the painting “Above Eternal Peace” “the area and in general the entire motif was taken entirely from life... Only the church was different in nature, ugly, and Levitan replaced it with a cozy little church from Plyos.” The sketch of this Plyos church has been preserved and is known to us.

The fact that the landscape “Above Eternal Peace” is basically a natural view of Lake Udomlya was also testified in his memoirs by V.K. Byalynitsky-Birulya, whose estate “Chaika” was located nearby . According to him, in the foreground is the cape of that oval island from which Levitan “was carried away by the large expanse of water” and from which “after a stormy stormy day he saw those dark clouds piling up in the sky over the water of Udomli , which sound so unique, a tension-filled chord in his painting.” But unlike Kuvshinnikova, he claims that the landscape was “supplemented by the motif of a church and cemetery observed on Lake Ostrovenskoye.” Be that as it may, the artist combined the two types not by chance; in this way he tried to express a certain philosophical idea. The artist himself claimed that in this picture he is “all of me, with all my psyche, with all my content.”

The idea of ​​comparing human life with the majestic, grandiose element of nature, living its own life, its own existence, which first arose in the painting “Evening on the Volga” (1887-1888), unfolded here with all its strength and breadth, in all the maturity of Levitan’s mastery.

In this landscape, the grandiose expanse of water of the lake and the even more majestic expanse of sky with swirling clouds colliding with each other are combined with a fragile cape on which an old church and a poor rural cemetery are nestled. On this Yura the winds whistle at them; they are alone among the vast expanses. From this juxtaposition of nature and the traces of human existence in it, a landscape filled with sublime sorrow and tragic heroism is formed.

A fragile cape with a church and a cemetery, whistling by the wind of the elements, seems like the bow of some ship moving into an unknown distance. We see a light in the church window, a witness to human life, its indestructibility and quiet submission. The warmth of human existence and the homelessness of the vastness of nature simultaneously oppose each other and are combined in this picture. It seems to combine both of Levitan’s attitudes towards nature: showing its habitability by man and contrasting man with nature - just as in Chekhov’s landscapes. And what unites these two seemingly mutually exclusive relationships to nature is what was called “mood,” that is, the transmission in the state of nature of a person’s experiences, and through them, his thoughts.

The composition, quite static both in the initial drawings and in the oil sketch, acquires a dynamic, asymmetrical character in the painting. The viewer's gaze is directed into the distance by the line of the coast, and the cape with its trees bending in the wind, and, finally, by the fact that the shore on the right has been removed and instead the water there begins right from the front edge. Work on the painting proceeded along the lines of increasingly revealing the gloomy and alarming state of the landscape during a thunderstorm, expressing its tragic sound, conveying the wind blowing over the water, wrinkled its surface, bending the trees, the movement of clouds, deepening and expanding space. And it was precisely in this work that it became necessary to include a church with its graveyard in the landscape.

The clouds in the sky, their movement, transitions of light and color are worked out most subtly and in detail in order to best convey the majestic and tragic action taking place in the sky. On the contrary, the expanse of water and long-range plans of green fields and blue distances are interpreted in a very general way. The cape, completely covered with trees and crosses in the sketch, is exposed, which is why individual trees and crosses, lying down or silhouetted against the background of water, benefit in their expressiveness. Reducing the picture to a few, clearly and immediately perceived parts, Levitan, within these plot-important parts, gives a subtle elaboration of the details to which he wants to draw the viewer’s attention. Thus, if a triangular island in the distance is given in the form of a generalized mass, and the water is only enlivened by ripples, then the mass of the cape in front is developed internally. Thus, Levitan depicts a barely visible path, subtly depicts the church and crosses. Before us is an already familiar technique, in which the landscape seems to be immediately captured at one glance, and then gradually reveals itself in its details.

Ultimately, the picture is built on large generalized masses, such as the sky as a whole, the cape in front, the water, the island, the stripes of the far shore. The sky itself is quite clearly divided into a cloudy part at the bottom and a light part at the top. This construction on large generalized masses is due to the fact that Levitan, creating a monumental-epic harsh landscape, solves it compositionally not only asymmetrically, but also very dynamically. Comparing the painting with the sketch reveals the fragmentary composition of the painting. By cutting off the right side from the shore and bringing the water to the lower edge, Levitan gave the landscape the character of a kind of “cutout” from nature. This seemingly random fragmentation of the landscape gives it spontaneity. A landscape that is strictly constructed and symbolic in nature is perceived as a natural view.

The picture as a whole is a wonderful combination of moments of living spontaneity and strict picturesqueness. If the “floating” cape and the flowing water that reaches below the picture frame draw us into the picture space, then the clouds floating parallel to the picture plane and the strong horizon line expand the space on the plane. If the details on the cape in front, like a luminous window, seem to introduce us into the landscape, then overall it opens up before us as a grandiose panorama, as a majestic spectacle.

If, while working on the painting “By the Pool,” Levitan made the landscape more gloomy than in the sketch and darkened its color range, then in working on the painting “Above Eternal Peace,” he, on the contrary, brightened and enriched it. The sketch is written in a rather monotonous dark palette. The greenery of the shore is almost black, the church is dark gray, the water is leaden; leaden dark tones dominate the sky, although the yellow tones of the sunset and pinkish ones in the clouds already appear here. This dark color scheme is very expressive. But it expresses only one experience, only one “mood” of gloomy sinisterness. The sketch is more integral and more collected in color, written more energetically than the painting, but the latter is richer in color. And this richness of colors contributes to greater breadth, complexity and versatility of its content. It can no longer, as in a sketch, be reduced to one feeling, to one emotional note or thought. On the contrary, it is a whole symphony of experiences and, accordingly, a variety of colors and their shades. They sound especially subtly in the sky, where the gloomy, heavy leadenness of the sky at the horizon, completely overshadowed by clouds, is different from the also leaden, but different, sometimes lighter, sometimes darker, shades of the clouds above it. And how complex are the transitions of yellow and pinkish tones in the gaps of the sunset sky and in the color of a sharp zigzag cloud cutting through the swirling clouds. The color of the greenery on the cape, on the island and in the strip of the far shore is also different. Levitan uses a kind of “color flow” technique. So, on the dark grass of the cape we see yellowish tones in front, which are associated with the color of the roof of the church and then with yellow tones in the distance to the right and with yellow shades of a thin zigzag cloud.

But still, large color planes predominate in the picture. This is especially noticeable in the blue stripes of the distances beyond the river. And if on the cape this general green spot of color is broken up by the detailed rendering of architecture, trees, paths, and the introduction of yellow strokes into the green color zones, then the color of the water is much more monotonous. Levitan sought to break its monotony with the image of ripples. It is conveyed partly by gray and white strokes, but more by varying texture rather than color. Levitan, in addition to variously directed strokes, then scratched the water “on the damp layer of paint,” apparently with a comb. The sky and clouds are also painted with great textural variety: from liquid paint, through which the canvas is visible, to a very dense layer of brushwork in dark swirling clouds. But the most densely painted part of the picture is the “earthly” part - both the cape in front and especially the water.

The greatest difference in the degree of thickness of the paint layer corresponds to the same richness of shades and color transitions in the rendering of clouds, contrasts of thunderclouds with the sunset sky. This once again proves that the motif of a thunderstorm, the motif of the majestic and menacing breath of the elements, interested Levitan most of all in the picture.

The small number of “objects” depicted in the painting, their general laconicism, relatively large color spots, to one degree or another developed inside - all this corresponds well with both the size of the canvas and the monumental heroism of the image of nature.

In this picture, the asymmetry of the parts is balanced by the counter-directional movement of each of these parts that make up the picture - a cape, an island, water, clouds, etc.

Levitan creates poetry of the grandiose, majestic, here we have a symphony. And just as in a musical symphony there is no need for a verbal retelling of its musical content, so here the complexity and richness of feelings and thoughts can hardly and should be reduced to any one thought or idea. This is a complex interweaving of grief and admiration, an interweaving that makes this picture epoch-making. Levitan in this picture managed to convey his time and its “philosophy” using purely landscape, emotional and lyrical means.

Criticism after the next traveling exhibition, completely failing to understand the deep meaning of Levitan’s painting - the opposition of the eternal and powerful forces of nature to weak and short-term human life, the desire to answer the question about the relationship between man and nature, about the meaning of life - instead of showing the contradictions of life, critics naively saw as if there were two contents, “thanks to this, the picture does not make a harmonious and strict impression at all.”

But still, even those who were perplexed sometimes admitted that “the concept of this picture is so new and interesting that it deserves mention” and analysis, and that, although in “an attempt to paint a huge space one cannot see perfection, it shows that the artist is looking for a new path and, judging by his other, smaller works, he will probably find this path.” Only V.V. Chuiko, finding the picture unsuccessful and artistically unsatisfactory, admitted that “despite, however, all these very large technical shortcomings, there is nevertheless a mood in the picture: Mr. Levitan was able to express the impression of some dead peace, reminiscent of the idea of ​​death, it’s just a pity that this idea is expressed so strangely.”

But if there were still some disagreements in assessing the ideological concept and content of the painting, its title, then everyone agreed in admitting that it was picturesquely bad and weak. Critics believed that the clouds were written in too ink, that they were “stone”, that “the river will pour out of the frame, and will not go under it”, that it was written in “absolutely white paint”, that “there is no movement in the water”, that “ the distant plan is heavily painted with vat paint” and “is not brought into any correspondence with the foreground triangle,” etc. etc. New character painting, the painting with its decorative features was mistaken for strange eccentricity, for unfinishedness, “vague daub,” passed off as a special “manner.” New techniques of painting, a new interpretation with its decorative features, with the construction of images on large planes, seemed artificial.

Against the background of all this harsh criticism, it is lonely, but even more significant, the positive reviews of V.I. Sizov and V.M. Mikheev, who highly appreciated and correctly understood Levitan’s painting. Sizov called it “well thought out and strongly felt”, distinguished by “undoubted artistic merits”. But V. Mikheev, who gave a detailed analysis of it, interpreted the painting especially correctly. He sensitively grasped the deep psychological nature of the canvas and called it a genuine landscape painting, although not without certain technical and pictorial shortcomings, but remarkable for its content and “mood.” Mikheev correctly felt its peculiar “musicality”, saying that “this picture is a symphony, strange at first, but subtly embracing the soul, you just have to trust its impression...”. And, trusting him, he understood what remained hidden to other critics. He understood it as “a picture of a strong, deeply taken mood”, felt its drama: “It’s almost not even a landscape: it’s a picture of the human soul in the images of nature...”. Mikheev here is close to the understanding of the picture that Levitan himself expressed in the aforementioned letter to Tretyakov, believing that in it he expressed all of himself, his entire psyche.

Mikheev’s article appeared in the same month when Tretyakov decided to purchase the painting, obviously having also seen and understood what great personal and social content, experience, and philosophy were contained in this painting. Here again, Tretyakov’s remarkable flair, his attention to expressing great, epoch-making ideas and moods in painting, was revealed once again.

A.A. Fedorov-Davydov

Essay based on a painting by 6A student Maria Lozinskaya

I liked this landscape so much that I even wanted to go up to this hill, to this small but interesting church, and calmly look at this vast expanse all day and evening. It seems to me that I. I. Levitan deliberately created this picture in slightly dark colors in order to make nature even more significant.

Looking at the trees on the hill, we see that they are tilted to the side, which means the wind is blowing on them. But the waters of the Volga River, unlike the trees, seem very calm. The sky was enveloped and covered with dull, gray clouds. And I like it! I really love it when it gets evening and such an atmosphere is created!

When I look at nature, and especially like this, I immediately forget about everything and enjoy the beauty of nature. Levitan managed to convey the uniqueness, great beauty and charm of nature. I think he gave the picture the title “ Above eternal peace", because he, sitting on the hill and painting his work, really felt peace, and this peace is felt by everyone when they see the work, and therefore it is eternal.

Essay based on a painting by student 10A Yulia Vagina

Levitan’s student Kuvshinnikova recalled: “Levitan painted the painting “Above Eternal Peace” later, in the summer we spent near Vyshny Volochok, near Lake Udomlya. The terrain and, in general, the entire motif were taken from life during one of our rides on horseback. Only the church was different in nature, ugly, and Levitan replaced it with a cozy church from Plyos. Having made a small sketch from life, Levitan immediately began to work on the larger picture. He wrote it with great enthusiasm, always insisting that I play Beethoven for him and most often Marche funebre.” This picture is one of best works Levitan. The landscape captivates with its grandeur, makes a person feel his insignificance before nature and Time, which is the main character of the picture. Most of the canvas is occupied by the sky. Heavy lead clouds make a depressing impression. They are reflected in the endless pristine waters of the lake. And on a small island there is a wooden chapel, behind it are the rickety crosses of the cemetery. It’s as if the church, a creation of human hands, realizes its powerlessness before eternity. And she came to terms with it. The picture is imbued with philosophical calm and loneliness. Thanks to the mood with which it was written, it simply cannot leave the viewer indifferent and not touch a single heart string.

Work on the painting took place in the summer of 1893 on Lake Udomlya, near Vyshny Volochok. Regarding the acquisition of the painting, I.I. Levitan wrote to P.M. Tretyakov on May 18, 1894: “I am so incredibly happy that my work will come to you again, that since yesterday I have been in some kind of ecstasy. And this, in fact, is surprising , since you have enough of my things, but this last one came to you, it touches me so much because I am all in it, with all my psyche, with all my content...”

In a private collection in Moscow there is a sketch “Wooden church in Plyos at the last rays of the sun”, from which the church in the picture was painted. According to A.P. Langovoy, it previously belonged to P.M. Tretyakov. While Levitan was working on the painting, the artist took a sketch from the gallery, after which “...Pavel Mikhailovich told Levitan that he no longer needed the sketch, and offered to take it back, replacing it with another of his choice.”

A sketch of a painting called “Before the Storm” (paper, graphite pencil) is in the State Tretyakov Gallery.

Deep philosophy, thoughts about human destiny imbued with Isaac Levitan's painting "Above Eternal Peace".

This painting occupies a special place in the artist’s work. This is not only a philosophical landscape painting. Here Levitan sought to express his inner state. “...I am all in it with all my psyche, with all my content...” he wrote.

Levitan was always excited by the vast expanse of water. He wrote that he felt “alone, face to face with a huge expanse of water that could simply kill...” On the Volga, the artist overcame this feeling. In the painting “Above Eternal Peace,” a huge expanse of water and a heavy sky put pressure on a person, awakening the thought of the insignificance and transience of life. This is one of the most tragic landscapes in world art. Somewhere below, at the edge of a flooded lake on the Jurassic River, a wooden church is nestled, next to it is a cemetery with rickety crosses. Desertion, the wind whistles over the heaving lake. Certain associations arise: the lake, the sky with the complex play of light and clouds are perceived as a huge, harsh, eternally existing world. Human life is like a small island visible in the distance, which can be flooded at any moment. Man is powerless before the all-powerful and powerful nature; he is alone in this world, like a weak light in the window of a church.

I am so incredibly happy with the knowledge that my latest work will again reach you, that since yesterday I have been in some kind of ecstasy. And this, in fact, is surprising, since you have enough of my things, but the fact that this last one came to you touches me so much because I am all in it, with all my psyche, with all my content, and it brings me to tears it would hurt if she passed your colossal...
From Levitan’s letter to P.M. Tretyakov dated May 18, 1894
http://www.art-catalog.ru/picture.php?id_picture=3

Above Eternal Peace is one of Levitan’s darkest, and at the same time, significant works, about which he himself wrote in a letter to Pavel Tretyakov: “I am all in it. With all my psyche, with all my content...” Levitan painted this picture to the sounds of the Funeral March from Beethoven's "Eroic Symphony". It was to such solemn and sad music that the work was born, which one of the artist’s friends called “a requiem to himself.”

“None of the artists before Levitan conveyed with such sad force the immeasurable expanses of Russian bad weather. It is so calm and solemn that it feels like greatness. Autumn removed the rich colors from the forests, from the fields, from all of nature, washed away the greenery with rains. The groves became through-and-through. The dark colors of summer gave way to timid gold, purple and silver. Levitan, like Pushkin and Tyutchev and many others, waited for autumn as the most precious and fleeting time of the year."(K. Paustovsky)