The author of the painting is over eternal rest. "Above Eternal Peace" by Isaac Levitan
Isaac Levitan's painting "Above Eternal Peace" is the artist's third work in the dramatic trilogy, which also includes the paintings "At the Pool" and. This canvas is distinguished by the appearance in it of a philosophical component, which is no less important than admiring nature. The work is filled with loneliness and deep longing, which is emphasized by a carefully thought-out choice of angle.
The work of a landscape painter impressed many with its emotionality. A grandiose panorama opens before the audience: a high cape of the coast, endless expanses of water of the lake and a huge sky with thunderclouds. The cape seems to be floating, but the viewers involuntarily direct their gaze forward in the direction of its movement to a small island, to the blue distances on the horizon and then up to the sky. The three elements - earth, water and sky - are captured at once, at one glance, they are depicted in general, in large, clearly outlined details. And it is precisely the generality of the depicted that this landscape differs from the previous ones - the artist creates a majestic, monumental image of nature.
Here, as in other canvases of Levitan, nature lives. In this picture, the psychologism inherent in all the paintings of the author acquires a new quality: here, too, nature lives, but with its own life, flowing against the will of man. She is spiritualized, as nature is spiritualized in fairy tales, epics. The viewer sees here not just the surface of the water, in which the environment is reflected, as is customary for us, he feels it as a single mass that sways in a huge bowl and glows with a single whitish-lead color. The sky is also enveloped in movement, majestic actions unfold on it: the chaotically piling, swirling clouds, colliding with each other, of darker, lead-violet, tones and lighter, heavier and lighter tones move. And only a small pink cloud emerging from the gap between the clouds, a cloud, the outlines of which resemble an island in a lake, calmly floats by and will soon disappear.
Let us also note the earthly part of the picture - a cape with an old church nestled on it, trees swaying in the wind and twisted grave crosses. Earthly life is included in the eternal life of nature. Reflections on the meaning of life, on the life and death of a person, on immortality, on the infinity of life, this canvas gives rise to. Levitan wrote in one of his letters: "Eternity, a terrible eternity, in which generations have drowned and will drown yet ... What horror, what fear!"
"The painting" Above Eternal Peace "makes you think about the meaning of life and its transience. In it I am all, with all my psyche, with all my content ”, - said the artist himself about this picture.
Year of painting: 1894.
Dimensions of the painting: 150 x 206 cm.
Material: canvas.
Writing technique: oil.
Genre: landscape.
Style: realism.
Gallery: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
Isaac Levitan Above Eternal Peace. 1894
Isaac Levitan's iconic philosophical painting Above Eternal Peace has long attracted attention.
In a letter to P. M. Tretyakov on May 18, 1894, the artist wrote about his painting: “I am so incredibly happy that my work will get to you again that since yesterday I have been in a kind of ecstasy. And this, in fact, is surprising, since you have enough of my things, but that this last one came to you, it touches me so much because in it I am all, with all my psyche, with all my content ... ”.
It is known that the artist wrote this work while listening to music. The solemn and sad sounds of Beethoven's funeral march inspired the author and made him create a gloomy and almost tragic atmosphere of this work. One of the artist's friends called him "a requiem for himself."
Levitan began work on the painting in the summer of 1893 on Lake Udomlya, near Vyshny Volochok. The church in the picture was painted from the study "Wooden church in Plyos in the last rays of the sun." A sketch of the painting "Above Eternal Peace" under the title "Before the Thunderstorm" is also kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery.
Isaac Levitan Above Eternal Peace. 1894
Helplessness, fragility and defenselessness - these are the main feelings that every viewer experiences before this work of the great artist.
In the painting "Above Eternal Peace" leaden clouds hang heavily over the ground. The wide lake that opens behind the cliff looks gloomy and harsh. Levitan wrote that he feels "alone from eye to eye with a huge expanse of water that can simply kill ...".
On a small cliff there is a church, next to a forgotten cemetery, a churchyard, the last refuge ... Fragile trees bend under a strong wind, a thin, intermittent path leading to the church is a symbol of oblivion, abandonment, weariness.
The element surrounding the cliff breathes with power. It seems that one more moment and the churchyard will disappear, the church will scatter around the world ... Destruction seems inevitable.
The viewer hears the howling of the wind, feels the piercing cold, dampness, hears the rumble of distant thunder.
In the distance you can see a deserted island, which is rapidly "floating away" from the cliff. One gets the impression that the island takes with it the souls of the dead, so that eternity swallows up the remnant of the human spirit, the very memories of the departed people.
Human life is insignificant, fleeting and meaningless ... The huge space, captured by the artist's gaze, presses on the viewer. The viewer experiences an acute feeling of loneliness and defenselessness in front of this eternal peace, about which people are afraid even to think.
The eternal question - what is there, beyond the threshold of eternity, torments the author, but he does not find an answer, leaving this search to the viewer.
In an amazing way, all the power of the elements is opposed by the small dome of the church. It is directed straight up, and its color, merging with the metallic tones of the sky, creates a feeling of stability and strength.
The painting was published at the time of the greatest flowering of the artist's talent. That is why his idea, philosophical depth, perfected skill with which this canvas was written, so amazed his contemporaries and amaze descendants. The content of this picture will be relevant for all generations.
And in its essence it is his spiritual testament, his creative program and the most complete philosophical attitude of the artist to the world and people. The work was admired by Russian poets and musicians. She served as the impetus for the creation of many musical, poetry and literary works.
ABOVE ETERNAL REST
Spreading by hand
dark bushes,
I didn’t find the smell of raspberries
But I found grave crosses,
When I went to the raspberry-tree for the barn ...
It's fantastically quiet in the dark
It's lonely, scary and damp there,
There, the daisies seem to be not the same -
As creatures of a different world.
And so in the mist of muddy water
The deaf cemetery stood quietly,
So everything was mortal and holy,
That until the end there will be no rest for me.
And this sadness, and the holiness of former years
I loved so much in the darkness of my native land,
I wanted to fall and die
And hug daisies, dying ...
Let me be over a thousand lands
Takes life! Let it carry me
All over the land there is hope and a blizzard
Someone can't stand it anymore!
When will I feel the closeness of the funeral,
I'll come here, where are the white daisies,
Where is every mortal
sacredly buried
In the same sad white shirt ...
Rubtsov Nikolay
Text with
Other articles about Levitan.
Levitan - the greatest of Russian landscape painters
Heart-eater Levitan and his beloved woman
Reviews
Thank you for such an interesting material. This is the first time I have read so many new and interesting things, although I have been collecting material about Russian and foreign artists for a long time. I will visit more often and read.
I wish you creative success.
Sincerely.
Description of the painting by Levitan "Over eternal rest"
Isaac Ilyich Levitan is a master of the landscape of mood.
Many landscapes of Russian nature belong to his stroke.
The work "Above Eternal Peace" is considered the most Russian ever painted pictures.
In this plot of the picture, the artist contrasts the triumphant eternity of nature with the absurdity of human life.
Earthly passions seem insignificant and ridiculous opposite to a formidable eternity capable of swallowing everything.
The picture is painted in cold 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 weight.
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, this can be seen from the bent crosses.
The space from the cliff to the clouds is occupied by a lake.
Just looking at him shivers down to my bones.
Gloomy and cold immense space.
The graveyard trees can be seen as the wind tends to the ground.
Levitan's painting "Above Eternal Peace" evokes many different thoughts.
And perhaps while drawing, its author experienced his emotional experiences and fears, but whoever looks at her now feels for himself too.
Some think about their unfulfilled hopes and dreams, others are saddened by their insignificant life, for the third it is as an impetus to a new beginning.
The beginning of something better and more colorful, not gloomy 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.
The massive clouds will always be replaced by a bright sky and sun.
Brighten up your life.
Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Levitan. Isaac Levitan ... Wikipedia
- (1860 1900), Russian painter. Landscape painter. Studied at MUZhVZ (1873 1885) under A.K.Savrasov and V.D. Polenov; taught there (from 1898). Participant of exhibitions of the Itinerants (from 1884; from 1891 a member of the TPHV), the Munich Secession (from 1897), the magazine Mir ... Art encyclopedia
Isaak Ilyich (1860, Kybartai, Lithuania - 1900, Moscow), Russian painter and graphic artist; outstanding landscape painter. Born into the family of a railway employee. In 1870 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZhVZ), where he studied at ... ... Art encyclopedia
- (1860 1900), Russian painter itinerant. The creator of the "landscape of mood", which is characterized by a wealth of poetic associations, a major ("March", 1895; "Lake. Rus", 1900) or a mournful spirituality of the image ("Over Eternal Peace", 1894). ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Isaac Levitan I. Levitan, Self-portrait (1880) Date of birth: 1860 Place of birth: Kybarty, Kovno province Date of death ... Wikipedia
I. Levitan, Self-portrait (1880) Date of birth: 1860 Place of birth: Kybarty, Kovno province Date of death ... Wikipedia
Isaac Levitan I. Levitan, Self-portrait (1880) Date of birth: 1860 Place of birth: Kybarty, Kovno province Date of death ... Wikipedia
Isaac Levitan I. Levitan, Self-portrait (1880) Date of birth: 1860 Place of birth: Kybarty, Kovno province Date of death ... Wikipedia
Isaac Levitan I. Levitan, Self-portrait (1880) Date of birth: 1860 Place of birth: Kybarty, Kovno province Date of death ... Wikipedia
Books
- Isaac Levitan,. As a rule, we get to know the work of our great painters in early childhood. Whether it be reproductions of paintings hanging on the walls of kindergartens and schools, or reduced versions of them in ...
- Masterpieces from A to Z: Issue 4,. With the new project of the "Gallery of Russian Painting" publishing house, art lovers will have new - truly unique - opportunities. We offer you the most complete thematic collections ...