Stories from the Artisan: Singer of Russian nature. I. Levitan. Pictures of Russian nature The creation of the painting "Evening Bells"

01.07.2020

Ministry of General and Professional Education of the ROSTOV REGION

state budget educational institution average vocational education Rostov region

« Novocherkassk Industrial and Humanitarian College»

(gBou spo RO "npgk")

SCRIPT FOR THE THEMED CLASSROOM HOUR

The date of the:

01/28/2014

Subject:

“Levitan – singer of Russian nature” (from the series “Beauty in Russian Paintings”

artists")

Curator:

Batukhova Elena Nikolaevna

Class participants:

students of group 01.070602

Classroom goals:

introduce students to the work of the Russian artist Levitan;

to cultivate in students a love for Russian painting;

develop a sense of beauty in students;

contribute to the formation of active students life position in relation to native nature.

Preliminary preparatory work:

Students are offered various tasks:

searching for information about the artist;

search for reproductions of paintings - landscapes;

preparation of messages - description of the contents of the paintings;

preparation of slides: portrait of the artist, reproductions of paintings, etc.;

preparing a presentation for class.

Providing classroom hours:

student messages;

presentation of class content.

Progress of the class hour.

Ι. Organizing time(slides 1 – 3):

introduction curator : 2014 has been declared the Year of Culture. Undoubtedly creative people are writers, poets, artists and, of course, painters. You are future designers, which means you are also creative people.

Today in class we will get acquainted with the work of a wonderful Russian person, a great artist who in his canvases glorified the beauty of Russian nature - this is Isaac Levitan.

ΙΙ. Levitan is a singer of Russian nature.

Presenter 1:

In those years, distant, deaf

Sleep and darkness reigned in our hearts,

Pobedonostsev over Russia

He spread out his owl's wings.

And there was neither day nor night,

But only the shadow of huge wings...

“They were afraid to speak loudly, send letters, read books, were afraid to helpteach the poor to read and write,” - this is how A.P. later painted. Chekhov in his“Man in a Case” life in Pobedonostsev Russia.

More than one talent suffocated in this timelessness, more than one life ended tragically. Fate has minions, favorites. Artist Isaac Levitan,who grew up in a poor Jewish family and lost his father and mother at an early age, was her stepson. She gave Levitan so much grief and suffering that hethere would be more than enough for several people. In the end, Levitan won thecombating poverty, managing to defend his talent.

Presenter 2 ( slide 4-5):

Levitan in his works very accurately, perhaps consciously, conveyed the general tone in nature, which gave him the opportunity to depict moments of the day with extraordinary truthfulness. All his paintings are so varied in general tone that we immediately see what day and what moment of the day is depicted by the artist.

One day at dusk, Levitan met a young woman at the gate of his house. The stranger walked slowly towards the station. Levitan did not see her face:it was covered with an umbrella. In the wrong light, when she raised her umbrella, itit seemed beautiful and familiar to him. Levitan returned to the closet and lay down. Chadilathere was a candle, the rain was humming, drunks were crying at the station. Longing for mother, sister, female love entered Levitan's heart from then on and did not leave until last days his life.

That same fall, Levitan wrote “Autumn Day. Sokolniki". Thispoetic picture of a thoughtful and sad autumn- first workthe artist, his gray and golden autumn, sad, like the Russian sky, like lifeLevitan himself, breathed a cautious warmth from the canvas and pinched the viewers’ hearts.

You stand in front of the painting and look. And gradually something complicated arisesfeeling permeating the picture needed by a person sadness, causingI feel nostalgic for nature.

A young woman in black walked along the path of Sokolniki Park, through heaps of fallen leaves. She was alone among the autumn grove, and thisloneliness surrounded her with a feeling of sadness and thoughtfulness.

“Autumn day. Sokolniki" is the only landscape of Levitan wherethere is a man present, and the figure of a man was painted by Nikolai Chekhov. After that, people never appeared on Levitan’s canvases. They were replaced by forests andpastures, foggy floods and poor huts of Russia, voiceless and lonely.

Presenter 3 (slide 6 – 9):

Crocodile! - Levitan calls Anton Chekhov.

Aw!

It's time to go to the forest! - Levitan shouts. He brought him a gun. Levitan's dog Vesta squeals with pleasure. Soon they go hunting.

This is how the day began at Babkino, the dacha of the Russian writer Anton PavlovichChekhov. Hunting, fishing, mushroom picking. In the evenings we played tricks and dressed upwhoever was at their best, impromptu composed and acted out humorous plays,wrote funny poems:

And here is Levitan's outbuilding,Calling the dog Vesta to come to you,

A dear artist lives here,Gives her a jug of milk.

He gets up very, very earlyAnd then, without getting up,

And immediately he drinks Chinese tea.He touches the sketch lightly.

The humorous tone that Chekhov maintained remained in theirrelationships. In the evenings we went to the park and played tricks until late at night. Anton Pavlovich, wearing a turban and a robe made of two sheets, with his face smeared with soot, fired a blank charge at Levitan, dressed as a Bedouin. Then, with songs and jokes, they buried the “killed” one. On the outbuilding where Levitan lived, they hung the inscription “Merchant Levitan’s Loan Fund”; they staged more than oncea comic trial of a “loan shark.”

They laughed until they dropped, playing pranks on each other. But they often over-salted it.It happened that Levitan would be offended and leave. Will disappear somewhere- then, for two or three days he’s goneit is seen. After for long years poverty, hunger, loneliness he was especiallysensitive, easily vulnerable. He suffers, feeling some kind of alienation.

Lonely, who did not know warm human friendship, Levitan with all his soul“stuck” to Chekhov’s family. He loves Anton Pavlovich, dreams of marrying his sister Maria Pavlovna, and is strongly attached to his classmate Nikolai Chekhov.

Here, in Babkino, Levitan’s soul seems to be thawing, as if Levitan’s sadness had either gone somewhere or was lurking. Levitan's work is easy,joyfully. He paints the painting “Evening in the Plowed Field”, creates fresh, sunnycanvases: “Bridge”, “First greenery. May", "Towards evening. Istra River".

Presenter 4: Isaac Levitan was very fond of the great Russian river Volga. He came here to paint his amazing landscapes. Three years spent onVolga, were filled with painful and joyful searches, so that laterart historians might say famous phrase: “Levitan opened the reach, and the reach opened Levitan.” Yes, here Levitan found himself: on his canvasessomething unique appeared that gave Chekhov the right to call Levitan “the king among all modern landscape painters" And this one crowned by himThe landscape painter truly created a miracle! Soul, heart movements from now onall his landscapes.

Levitan was an artist of sad landscapes. The landscape is always sadwhen a person is sad. For centuries, Russian literature and painting have talked aboutboring sky, skinny fields, lopsided huts.

Russia, poor Russia,

I want your gray huts,

Your songs are windy to me -

Like the first tears of love...

Great singer Russian nature, the artist loved to repeat Russian poetrypoet Evgeny Baratynsky:

With nature alone he breathed life:The stream meant babbling,

And I understood the conversation of tree leaves,

And I felt the grass growing...

“This is what a landscape painter needs - to understand the conversation between water and trees, to hear“like grass growing,” said Levitan. “What a great happiness this is!”

Presenter 5 ( slide 10 -14): Yes, Levitan loved the Volga! He came to the banks of the Volga more than once. Yes, that's itThe problem is that he won’t come here, the weather is inclement. Gloomy sky, gloomyriver, an angry wind whips up small angry waves. It would seem how difficultwork in such bad weather! But it was precisely at this time that Levitan wrote hisfamous paintings dedicated to the Volga: “After the Rain”, “Ples”, “Evening onVolga" and many others.

But on one of their trips it turned out to be a sunny day. And Levitan saw the Volgacompletely different. He created a painting which he called “Fresh Wind”.

Your soul feels light when you look at this landscape. Paints -joyful, pure. Blue sky, blue water, painted barges, an elegant white steamship.

Everything here is in motion. Overtaking each other, heavy barges float down the river. A nimble steamboat hurries towards them, leaving behind a long stream of smoke. A flock of seagulls rises and then sweeps over the water itself. A fresh wind ripples the water, inflates the sail, drives it across the skyfluffy clouds whipped up like foam. We feel movement andBusiness life of a navigable river.

Levitan's paintings require slow viewing. They're not stunningeye. They are modest and accurate, like Chekhov's stories, but the furtherAs you peer into them, the more and more lovely the silence of provincial towns, familiar rivers and country roads becomes.

The painting “After the Rain” was painted in four hours. Clouds and tinthe color of the Volga water created soft lighting. It could disappear any minute. Levitan was in a hurry.

The picture contains all the charm of rainy twilight in the Volga region.town. The puddles sparkle. The clouds go beyond the Volga like low smoke. Steam from steamship pipes falls on the water. Barges near the shore turned black from dampness.

In such summer twilight it is good to enter dry hallways, low rooms withfreshly washed floors, where lamps are already burning and behind open windowsit makes noise from falling drops and smells like an abandoned garden. It's good to listen to an old piano being played. Its weakened strings ring like a guitar. A dark ficus stands in a tub next to the piano. A high school student sits in a chair with her legs crossed and reads Turgenev. An old cat wanders around the rooms, and his earshudders nervously - he listens to see if the knives are knocking in the kitchen.

The street smells like matting. Tomorrow is a fair, and to Cathedral SquareThe carts are arriving. The steamer goes down the river and catches up with a rain cloud that covered half the sky. The schoolgirl looks after the ship, and her eyes become misty and large. The steamer goes to the lower towns, where there are theaters, books, and tempting meetings.

And around the town, disheveled rye fields get wet day and night.

Presenter 6 (slide 15) In the painting “Above Eternal Peace” the poetry of a stormy day is expressed with even moregreater strength. The painting was painted on the shore of Lake Udomlya in Tverskaya provinces.

From the slope, where the dark birches bend under the gusty wind and standsamong these birches there is an almost rotten log church, the distance opensa remote river, meadows darkened by bad weather, a huge cloudy sky.

Heavy clouds, filled with cold moisture, hang above the ground. Obliquesheets of rain cover the open spaces.None of the artists before Levitan conveyed with such sad powerthe immeasurable distances of Russian bad weather. It is so calm and solemn thatfeels like greatness.

(slide 16) Two people on a deserted road. Young beautiful woman in a wide-brimmed dresshat. The dark face contrasts with the whiteness of the hat. Big brown eyes.Dark curly hair. In his hands is a blue umbrella. Sofya Petrovna Kuvshinnikova and Levitan return home. She came with him to the Volga to write sketches... The day was approaching evening.

We ended up in the wrong place... Strange!..

But this is Vladimirka, or what? Look - a milestone!..

An old woman walked towards me, tied with a black scarf right up to her eyes.

Where does the road lead, grandma?

Which? Vladimirskaya?

Thank you, grandma. All clear.

The old lady left. Levitan and his companion are standing at a fork in the road, silent,
looking ahead.

Following the old woman in a black scarf, the road stretched sadly. The figure of the old woman became smaller and smaller, and soon the black dot completely merged with the grayish-brown road and disappeared somewhere near the horizon.Day and night, in heat and frost, snowstorm and rain, the prisoners drag onstages along the Vladimir highway... Shouts of the guards... The ringing of shackles... People walk steadily, step by step, from prison to prison, to hard labor, to death...

Everything here breathes grief, great human tragedy - the grass, the air,even birds flying over Vladimirka. Levitan found the strength to show people Vladimirka. He could transform into a prisoner who is being driven around Vladimirka for who knows what, he could feel the weight of the shackles, hear their ringing, see the sky above the road... . Somewhere, at the very edge of the earth, a bright strip of sky is visible, there, apparently, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds. What is this,hope? No. By the time you get there, the light will disappear, there is the same road,exhausting your last strength, and the sky is as gray as a prisoner's robe.

Levitan shows a seemingly ordinary road laid alongsteppes, under a gloomy sky. Quiet. Not a living soul... But a man stands in front ofpicture and feels, precisely feels with his heart, with his whole beinggreat tragedy of the century...

Presenter 1 (slide 17): A few miles from Zatishya there was the estate of Bernovo, which belonged to Baroness Wulf. Levitan came there one day and noticed an old dam across the river. He was interested in this motive. The Baroness told hima tragic legend passed down about this quiet backwater from mouth to mouth. He heard a story about a tragedy that occurred at an abandoned mill and which served Pushkin to create “The Mermaid”. The miller had a beautifuldaughter Natasha, and the Baroness’s grandfather has a very handsome young man. Young peoplefell in love with each other, but when Natasha was expecting a child, someone reported themsecret love for the despot master. And he ordered the young man to be beaten to death, and then sent to be a soldier for life. Out of grief, Natasha drowned herself in the pool. Levitan listened to this story, and the abandoned dam took shape for himdark poetry. This is how the painting “At the Pool” was conceived. A remote corner of the forest near an abandoned dam, which people usually try to avoid. Levitan perfectly conveyed the atmosphere of mysterious and wary silence that shrouded the “lost place” in the minds of the people. It's getting dark. The already gloomy and wild forest plunges intoshadows. As if spellbound, the deep oily waters stand motionless, equally ominous in the standing mirror on the right and in the disturbing ripples on the left. The golden reflections of the setting sun emphasize their bottomless black depth.

Log bridges and boards laid on the banks of the dam draw the viewer’s eye into the eerie thicket of the forest; it seems that someone has just walked along these boards and disappeared behind the bushes. The artist managed to convey so wellthe nature of the depicted nature, that when you look at the picture you beginto experience a vague premonition of some kind of misfortune, anxious tension, terrible mystery, hostile to man, concealing death.

Presenter 2 (slide 18): The closer to maturity, the more often Levitan’s thought stopped at autumn. Autumn in Levitan's paintings is very diverse. It is impossible to list all the autumn days he painted on the canvas. Levitan left about a hundred “autumn” paintings, not counting sketches.

They depicted things familiar from childhood: haystacks, blackened by dampness; small rivers swirling fallen leaves in slow whirlpools; lonely golden birches, not yet blown by the wind; a sky like thin ice; shaggy rains over forest clearings. But in all these landscapes, no matter what they depict, the sadness of farewell days, falling leaves, withering grass, the quiet hum of bees before the cold and the pre-winter sun, barely noticeably warming the earth, is best conveyed.

Painting " Golden autumn». The forest dressed itself in “crimson and gold.” The birch foliage blazes like an orange fire,she is the first to give the signal: autumn! Everything is festive and elegant. The air beforetransparent that you can see distant distances: behind the green arable land there is a village right next tohorizon. The colors are fresh, bright, joyful. And the sky... The sky is blue - blue. And light transparent clouds slowly float by. The river is quiet, “as ifcast from glass." No breeze, no movement in the leaves of the trees. Everything frozelurking... Why? Is it not before the rains, cold fogs, sometimes withering, dreary, not golden, but dull gray autumn? Why about thisremember in “Golden Autumn”? In the left corner the paintings are visible on the groundfallen leaves and the birch tree is already half bare.

Presenter 3 (slide 19):

Each of his landscapes excited the viewer. The secret lay in the artist’s talent and his immense love for Russian nature. But the artist himself was unhappy during these years: he was orphaned early, he was haunted by poverty and lack of rights, he had to fight for existence and this, of course, affected his mood, the mood of the paintings he painted. His state of mind corresponds to the painting “Winter in the Forest. Wolf” (there is another painting by Levitan called “Winter in the Forest”). This painting was painted by the artist at the age of 25. By that time, he already mastered the technique of landscape, understood its “soul,” could convey lyrics and express his feelings through the landscape, was quite famous, but still continued to be in great need and suffer.

In the picture we see winter forest, black, naked, transparent, cold. White snow, black trees, gray low sky, thin branches of bushes sticking out from under the snow - everything looks joyless, sad, dull. In the distance the forest is denser, standing like a solid dark wall. In the foreground there is a forest edge, sparse trees, their powerful black trunks make a depressing impression. The landscape reeks of loneliness, melancholy, sadness, and endless cold. And with love - they are so sad and sad about something they love that it does not leave you indifferent.

Levitan was friends with another landscape artist, Alexei Stepanov. At that time, the two of them traveled a lot, looked for material for their paintings, and even lived together. There are many similarities and differences in their paintings. For example, Levitan loved “pure landscape” more - without the presence of living beings or people in it. And Stepanov really loved to express the mood through the figures of animals or people present in the picture. This artist was also an outstanding animal painter - he knew how to not only accurately draw an animal, but also give it character. He was especially good at wolves. He liked the wild and slightly scary beauty of these animals. Once while hunting - and Stepanov was also a good hunter - he was aiming at a wolf and was about to shoot, but he lowered his gun, amazed by the beauty of the beast.

When Levitan finished his landscape "Winter in the Forest", he showed it to a friend. They both saw that the picture was a success and yet it lacked one more accent to strengthen the theme of loneliness, despair, and melancholy. And then the master animal painter Stepanov, with a firm hand, brought into Levitan’s landscape the figure of a lone wolf - a strong, seasoned animal, which is also powerless in the face of cold and hunger, like the rest. And the painting became known as “Winter in the Forest. Wolf.”

Presenter 4 (slide 20,21,22):

Levitan writes “Blossoming Apple Trees”, “Ferns in the Forest”, “Summerevening" (1900). The painting “Summer Evening” describes the simplest motif - a village outskirts illuminated by the sun. Behind it is a narrow field and a rusty forest. But skillful compositional construction, a slightly rounded horizon line, a perfectly conveyed sunset glow, gilding the fields and forest, make us understand that the village backyard is the most beautiful place on earth. The gate made of rickety poles is perceived almost as a kind of Propylaea, and the road leading from the village to the forest is like a path to a large and beautiful world…

Tireless artistworks. He lives inMoscow, then on the Volga, travels abroad, returns and again with a brush in handsomewhere on the bank of a nameless river, or on the outskirts of an unprepossessing village, he writes and writes...

But his heart was not enough... Levitan knows that he is sick, but does not show it, so as not to upset his loved ones and friends. Suppressing your suffering, hidingillness, worries about Chekhov, sends him letter after letter to Crimea. About MeLevitan knows that he is doomed, that his heart disease is incurable, but he does not let go of his brush. Levitan is famous, but his days are numbered. The artist's health is deteriorating every day. He stubbornly fights the disease and does not give up.

I suffered a lot, comprehended a lot, learned a lot... - he says,hoping to take up work in a new way. But on August 4, 1900, Levitan did notbecame. He was only forty years old.

Isaac Ilyich Levitan did not become a singer of despondency, hopelessness and sorrow.The eighties, years of timelessness, were becoming a thing of the past.

In the 90s, Levitan’s work reflected the soul of an era that was outwardly everyday, thoughtful and sad, but concealed ripened forces, new thunderstorms and storms.

ΙΙΙ. Summary of the class hour.

Curator:

Once, speaking at a friendly dinner of the Itinerants on the occasionopening of the exhibition, Levitan said: “We must live, and live beautifully.”“We must overcome our suffering, we must use life, its light, its joy, like the shine of a sunny day.”

Levitan, as if awakened, turned to the joyful ways in which nature benefits man, and began to write solemn hymns to the earth, and not just look at it as a future grave. He was in a hurrycreate canvases that would remain after him and could compete withthe majestic immortality of nature itself.

He was too honest not to see people's suffering. He becamethe singer of a vast poor country, the singer of its nature. He looked at this nature through the eyes of a tormented people - this is his artistic power and this is partly the key to his charm.

Did you like it Classroom hour? How?

What new did you learn about the artist today?

beauty native nature reflected in the paintings of other artists. Think about which of them you would like to know more about than you already know.

Curator gr. 01.070602 ______________ E.N. Batukhova

(1860 - 1900)
He was called the singer of Russian nature. Levitan's Russian landscape is very good. It was given a special calling somehow. His silence is especially sad. Its expanses speak of the pristine nature. His paintings contain a lot of personal loneliness, alone with nature and Russia.

The future artist was born in the village of Kibarty, Kovno province on the western border Russian Empire, in the family of a poor stationmaster. He lived among those who were engaged in usury and trade. He lived in a Jewish environment. His grandfather was a rabbi.

Little Isaac did not like fuss. He often wandered around the outskirts, admired the sunset and waited for the first star to appear. He was unsociable and preferred communication with nature to communication with people. He didn’t like to sit at home, and his family considered him not a completely normal child. He dreamed of a beautiful and huge world. He grew up as a lyricist despite his surroundings. Meanwhile, the family was terribly poor. And then my father decided to take a risk - to go to Moscow. In Moscow we stopped at Solyanka, in huge house. The room was cramped and dark, the kerosene lamp was smoking. It was cold and dreary in Moscow. I remembered Cybarts with its spacious expanses. Isaac went to school. He gradually got used to big city, began to notice that Moscow is beautiful.

At the age of 13 he enters Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture. He succeeded art classes", where his successes were always celebrated. But at this time his mother dies, and soon his father, who fell ill with typhus, dies. At the age of 17 he remains absolutely penniless. He is expelled from the school for non-payment of tuition. And yet, his student friends find the required amount for him, and Levitan continues his education. The school exempts the young man from tuition fees. He spent the night, hiding from the watchman, here, on the top floor. He did not have a home or his own corner. After some time, A.K. Savrasov took Levitan to his workshop.

His happiness knew no bounds. Levitan is now a devoted student of Savrasov. The first exhibition in which Levitan participated took place in 1877. His works “Autumn” and “Overgrown Yard” received high praise from critics. The start was brilliant. His path was also completely determined - he would begin to paint a “portrait of Russian nature.” In 1879, he lives in Saltykovka near Moscow, travels daily to Moscow in a cast iron car and works hard.

And his diligence was rewarded. Tretyakov noticed the young landscape painter. I bought his painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki" for 100 rubles. The artist is 19 years old and must earn his living. Therefore, he painted pictures every day for the buyer and painted market landscapes. And again luck - meeting Savva Mamontov, who invited Levitan to write the scenery together with V. Vasnetsov for the opera “Rusalka” by Dargomyzhsky. The premiere of the opera was brilliant. For his work, Levitan received enough money to travel to Crimea. He painted the harsh Crimea, and his 50 Crimean sketches made him a success in Moscow. He became famous as a landscape painter. Unhappy love for the young artist Sofya Kuvshinnikova forces Levitan to flee from social life and settle on the Volga.

The 1880s are considered the best and most fruitful period in the artist’s work. He writes "Evening on the Volga". He writes space, freedom and freedom, which corresponded to the heroic scope of the river. Levitan “discovered,” as everyone believes, this provincial Volga town – Plyos. Levitan paints a ruddy evening, a river embraced by sunset. He writes mysterious, peaceful antiquity. He writes “Birch Grove” and “After the Rain. Reach", "Overgrown Pond". Painting “Evening. Zolotoy Ples" was amazing. Here everything is intertwined with everything else – the water and the sky are bathed in a kind of golden haze. Evening fog is spreading along the banks of the Volga. The joy of the day and the sadness of the evening seem to be intertwined with each other. This beauty is silent and pure.

He will leave for Moscow and again return to the Volga with Kuvshinnikova. Now he can write easily and well. Now this is Yuryevets. Ancient city old legends. There he came across an old monastery. The painting “Quiet Abode” was born - a multi-headed church immersed in greenery in the sunset rays. And everything is cheerful here.

The painter Polenov recommended him to the Wanderers - Levitan went to St. Petersburg for a gala dinner of the Partnership, where he was accepted into its ranks. He now constantly participates in annual exhibitions of the Itinerants.
The next summer, Levitan, together with Kuvshinnikova, settles in a dacha in the Tver province, in a calm place. There was a dam nearby, shrouded in the legend of the drowned miller's daughter. All summer the artist has been working on the painting “At the Pool.” And in 1892 he lives in the village of Gorodok near Boldin, Nizhny Novgorod railway. There the painting “Vladimirka” is born - a picture about the road of sorrow, about the road of convicts.

In March 1894, Levitan travels abroad - Vienna, Nice, Paris... There he acutely understands that “there is no better country than Russia!” He will return home in the fall and will write a lot. His canvases turn out to be light – “March”, “Fresh Wind. Volga", "Golden Autumn".

The pinnacle landscape painting was Levitan’s “Spring - Big Water.” In the hollow water that has flooded the trees, the huts, an empty boat sways quietly, and the branches of still bare trees stretch upward to an unimaginable height.

In less than 25 years, Levitan wrote about a thousand paintings, sketches, and drawings. European fame came to Levitan in 1897 - he was elected a member of the Munich Secession, the next year an academician of painting, and was invited to lead a landscape class at the school from which he himself had once graduated.
Levitan works a lot, but his illness (severe heart disease) is getting worse. At the end of July 1900, Levitan's heart stopped. Serov came from abroad to the funeral, and Nesterov stood a mourning post in distant Paris near his works on International exhibition in Paris.

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

Abstract on the topic:

Isaac Ilyich Levitan as a singer of Russian nature

Russian nature had many singers. Each of them had their own favorite places in the country and had their own passions. Each of the writers and artists discovered certain features of Russian nature that captivated him and tried to convey his love for them to his contemporaries and descendants.

But none of the artists expressed the nature of central Russia as completely as Isaac Ilyich Levitan. Almost none of the artists before Levitan showed the deep charm hidden in the simplicity of the Russian landscape. Almost no one before Levitan showed the greatness of our open spaces, hidden power our soft, sometimes as if shaded colors, all the picturesqueness of the most ordinary things - from the rain drizzling over a clearing, to the path leading from the well to the hut. Looking at Levitan's paintings, we catch ourselves in the fact that we have seen around us many times what was written by this excellent artist, but did not remember. All this slipped past us, like the landscape outside the carriage windows.

Levitan's strength lies in the fact that he makes us look closely at nature and conveys to us his love for his homeland. Most of us can simply look, whereas we must learn to peer, observe intently and remember. Only then will we discover in the nature around us such a variety of shapes and colors that we had never suspected before. This is the kind of in-depth observation of nature that artists, and first of all Levitan, teach us.

During Levitan’s life, it was customary to look for and find in his paintings various shades of sadness, sadness and even despondency. It was a sad time. It tried to paint everything around it in its own color. Levitanov's despondency is, of course, the deepest untruth. How can one call an artist sad who has revealed all the richness of the colors of Russian nature in all their continuous variability?! How can one talk about the sadness of an artist whose paintings are imbued to the last thread on the canvas with love for his country?!

There was and is no sadness. But sometimes, when we see Levitan’s paintings, we have a completely legitimate regret that we cannot, right now, at this moment, immediately be transported to the places depicted on the canvas. This is not sadness at all, it is completely different - an effective, living, fruitful, familiar feeling, which we call sadness only because we cannot define it more precisely.

Levitan devoted his entire life to singing our home country. That is why our gratitude to the artist is so great.

Levitan was born in August 1860 in the small Lithuanian town of Kybartai. There is almost no information about the artist’s childhood. He never remembered his past, and shortly before his death he destroyed his archive, letters from family and friends. In his papers they found a packet on which was written in Levitan’s hand: “Burn without reading.” The will of the deceased was fulfilled. But the memories of people who knew Levitan closely make it possible to restore the basic facts of his life.

He was born into a poor Jewish family of a railway employee. Having lost his father and mother early, he was left without any means of subsistence. His childhood and youth were full of hardships and humiliation. As a Jew, he was repeatedly subjected to various persecutions. Even being recognized by everyone, famous artist, he was forced to leave Moscow, and only the persistent efforts of his friends allowed him to return and obtain the right of residence in its environs. In 1873 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His teachers were the Itinerants, outstanding masters of landscape - first A.K. Savrvsov, then V.D. Polenov. The artist's paintings starting from early works(“Autumn day. Sokolniki”, “Bridge. Savvinskaya Slobodka”) as if they are saying: in Russia there are no catchy, dazzling views, but the charm of its landscapes lies elsewhere. Everything here requires a leisurely, thoughtful look. But the attentive viewer will discover a different kind of beauty, perhaps deeper and more spiritual.

Russian nature is not characterized by bright colors, sharp lines, clear edges: the air is humid, the outlines are blurry, everything is unsteady, soft, almost elusive. However, the Russian landscape opens up an expanse, beyond which one can discern more space - and so on endlessly (“After the Rain. Ples”). The artist said: “Only in Russia can there be a real landscape painter.” In the painting “At the Whirlpool,” Levitan plays on the images of folk poetry: the whirlpool is an unkind place, an abode evil spirits. This is a place of despair - people take their own lives here. The artist depicted the pool as mysterious; the whole landscape is filled with mystery, but also with the promise of peace, the end of a difficult journey. Painter K.A. Korovin recalled Levitan saying: “This melancholy is in me, it is inside me, but... it is diffused in nature... I would like to express sadness.”

The famous painting “Vladimirka” evokes similar feelings. The deserted, endless road - the path of those sentenced to hard labor - gives rise to a feeling of hopelessness.

The painting “Above Eternal Peace” can be called a philosophical landscape. There is more sky here than land; it is motionless, like the earth. The mystery of death (“eternal peace” - words from the funeral prayer) and the mystery of life (the sky is a symbol of immortality) are hidden in this work.

One of the most lyrical paintings Levitan - “Evening Bells”. This small painting arose thanks to the impressions of the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery near Moscow and the monastery near the city of Yuryevets on the Volga. The master wanted to convey the feeling of peace that was born in his soul at the sight of the white walls and domes of these modest abodes sparkling in the sun. The painting depicts a summer evening. Pink clouds float across the soft blue sky. They are reflected in the mirror surface of the river. The cathedral and the bell tower of a small monastery on the other side are also reflected in it. There is a forest around the monastery, illuminated by the last rays of sunset. The artist does not use here either bright colors, no sharp contrasts; all the tones on the canvas are muted and calm. It seems that only the bells break the silence of the passing day.

In 1894-1895 a turning point occurred in the artist’s soul. After the sad, dim canvases, he began to paint cheerful paintings, full of triumphant beauty. One of these works is “Golden Autumn”. This work is extremely harmonious both in composition and color.

All Russian artists turn of the XIX century- XX centuries, depicting nature, one way or another, were influenced by the work of Isaac Levitan - recognizing or rejecting his pictorial style.

Levitan's painting "March" with its triumphantly joyful colors gained wide fame: this work can be called one of the most poetic Russian landscapes of the late 19th century. While creating this picture, Levitan caught a particularly touching moment in the life of our northern nature: a bright eve before the onset of spring. In the forest, among the trees, there is still deep snow, the air is still frozen with frost, the trees are still bare, even the first spring guests, rooks and starlings, have not yet appeared in our area. But the sun is already warming up, the snow is dazzlingly shining in its rays, the shadows are filled with a lilac blue, swollen buds are already noticeable on bare branches against the sky, the approach of warm days is felt in the air - everything portends spring: all nature, all objects - everything is permeated with anticipation. This state is expressed in its own way by a quiet village horse with a sleigh, which stands, without moving, on the warm porch and patiently waits for its owner.

Levitan has long abandoned entertaining and everyday figures in his landscapes. But his horse in “March” is the focus of the entire landscape: it is impossible to remove it from the picture, just as it is impossible to remove the heart from a living body. Nothing happens here, and nothing can happen; we just stand together with this village horse, stand and wait, and are able to admire for hours this first smile of the awakening spring.

The understatement enhances the poetic charm of this landscape: an empty birdhouse on the high, still bare branches of a poplar reminds that its inhabitants should soon return, an open door serves as a sign that a person has just been here. The construction of “March” is distinguished by exceptional simplicity, clarity and accuracy. The edge of a wooden house with its boards going deep into the picture, as well as a wide strip of thawed road, draw the resident into the picture, help him mentally enter it, but “March” differs from most of Levitan’s other landscapes in its more closed, cozy character; the movement deeper is somewhat weakened by the lines of harmoniously curved, fanning out white trunks, which, tremblingly bending, stand out against the blue sky and against the dark coniferous greenery, consonant with the outlines of the road. The horizontal edge of the snow field divides the picture into two different parts and brings a touch of calm to it. These simple line relationships are not intrusive: everything seems simple, natural and even uncomplicated, and yet the highlighting of these compositional lines gives the modest corner both completeness and completeness. Nothing can be added to this landscape of Levitan, nothing can be taken away from it. Unlike earlier landscape painters, who sought to show the entire subject, to fit the whole tree, the whole house within the picture, Levitan puts together his picture as if from separate fragments, cut off by a frame, but all these parts and fragments form a complete whole, constitute a kind of unity. Never before had he found such a happy completeness in nature as he did around this village house, at the edge of the forest.

Levitan managed to convey in a new, fresh, soulful way the beauty of a village street, the touching outskirts of the village, the mystery of the pool, autumn leaf fall, trembling naked aspens and groves of white-trunked birches, the March thaw and blue shadows on the loose spongy snow. Everything shone, sang and completely captivated the audience, who recognized in Levitan’s landscapes their own, intimate, dear, whose name is Rus'.

Critics dubbed Levitan “the singer of sunsets and autumn sorrow.” But he didn't like this nickname.

Levitan died several years before the first outbreaks of popular uprisings in 1905. He was waiting for them, he believed in them. But the old enemy of the poor - tuberculosis - felled the master during the period of greatest flowering of his talent.

Now many of Levitan's works are in the Tretyakov Gallery. With their appearance, the appearance of works by Repin, Surikov and many other contemporaries of these painters, a brilliant period of Russian art begins.

Levitan painting March

Rice. 2 - “Autumn day. Sokolniki" 1879 State Tretyakov Gallery

Bibliography

1. M.V. Alpatov, N.N. Rostovtsev, M.G. Neklyudov, encyclopedia “Art”, ed.: “Enlightenment”, Moscow, 1969, p. 440-442.

2. M. Aksenova “Encyclopedia for children”, volume 7.

3. “Art”, part two, edition: “Avanta Plus”, Moscow, 1999, p. 392-395.

4. “State Tretyakov Gallery”, ed.: “Iskusstvo”, Moscow, 1988, p. 187.

5. Encyclopedia “What is it? Who is this?”, volume 1, ed.: “Enlightenment”, Moscow, 1968, p. 400-401.

Posted on Allbest.ru

Childhood and youth of the future artist

The future singer was born on August 30, 1860 in a small town near Kybarta, located in what is now Lithuania. The father of the future artist tried to help his children, Isaac and his brother Abel, gain knowledge. The brothers received their initial education at home under his guidance. Life away from cultural centers the country did not promise any prospects, and the Levitan family moved to Moscow. Isaac Ilyich from the very beginning early years A talent for drawing emerged, and, despite extreme poverty, he managed to enter the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

The years of study were unusually difficult for the young student. One after another, his parents died, and Isaac had to take care of a piece of bread himself. But there was also a lot of joy. Talent, coupled with perseverance, helped him immediately become one of the best students at the school. His works took first place in competitions and brought awards. Fate sent him wonderful teachers, V. G. Perov, A. K. Savrasov and V. I. Surikov. It was these people who helped the young painter’s talent to fully reveal itself. But most importantly, they introduced him to the circle of the famous society of Peredvizhniki artists.

First real success

In March 1877, Moscow welcomed the fifth mobile art exhibition. For the first time, Leitan demonstrated his works in the same halls with recognized masters of the brush. The success was unexpected and noisy. His painting "Autumn" was especially noted. Levitan was overwhelmed with happiness. In those years, the highest appreciation for the work of each artist was the purchase of his canvas by Tretyakov for his famous gallery. Very soon Levitan's paintings appeared in his halls.

After some time, another important event occurred in Levitan’s life. Famous philanthropist and creator of private opera troupe, Savva Morozov, recruited a group of artists to design his productions. I. I. Levitan was also invited. His paintings were well known to Morozov. Working in the theater not only helped in developing the artist’s talent, but also strengthened him financially. He goes on a trip to the Volga.

Trip to the Volga and abroad

The great Russian river was known to him mainly from the poems of Nekrasov and the paintings of Repin. Levitan brought back a whole series of paintings from his trip. Widely known of them are “Evening on the Volga”, “Golden Reach”, and many others. And again his canvases in Tretyakov Gallery. This is no longer just success, it is triumph.

I. I. Levitan, whose paintings are so popular in Russia, goes abroad. In Paris, Berlin and Rome, he visits the world's largest museums and studies the works of old masters. Of course, this brings benefits, but he cannot stay away from Russia for long. In his letters to friends, the artist talks about how he is drawn home to his native Russian landscapes.

Creation of the painting "Evening Bells"

Ahead was one of his most famous works. Levitan's painting "Evening Bells" cannot leave anyone indifferent. This canvas, so familiar to everyone, is filled with extraordinary lyricism and warmth. The idea for the painting came from Levitan in Slobodka near Zvenigorod. There he had a chance to observe the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery in the rays of the setting sun.

The artist was struck by the beauty of what he saw. But he began work on the painting in Yuryevets, where the Krivozersky Monastery is located on the shore of the lake. So inspired by two monasteries. Many researchers of the artist’s work believe that Savrasov taught him to feel the poetry of old churches.

The last years of the artist's life

In 1897, another painting was presented to the general public, which became a masterpiece of Russian landscape painting. It is relatively modest in size, but large in content. The spring revival of life, the awakening of new strength and hopes are its main motives.

I. I. Levitan, whose paintings were included in the gold fund national culture, lived a short life. He died on August 4, 1900, as if summing up the development of 19th-century painting.