Over eternal rest. Levitan's philosophy

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

Isaac Levitan (1860-1900) believed that the painting "Above Eternal Peace" reflects his essence, his psyche.

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

Time to get to know Levitan's masterpiece better.

Where was the painting "Above Eternal Peace" painted?

Lake Udomlya in the Tver region.

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

This is the nature here. Spacious, oxygenated and scent of grass. There is a ringing in my ears from the silence. And you are so saturated with space that later you hardly recognize the apartment. Since you need to squeeze yourself into the walls covered with wallpaper again.

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

Isaac Levitan. Study for the painting "Above Eternal Peace". 1892.

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

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

The meaning of the painting "Above Eternal Peace"

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

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

Nature is opposed to this eternal rest. She, in turn, personifies eternity. Moreover, a frightening eternity that will swallow everyone without regret.

Nature is majestic and eternal in comparison with man, weak and short-lived. Endless space and giant clouds are opposed to a small church with a burning fire.

Isaac Levitan. Over eternal rest (fragment). 1894. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

The church is not invented. The artist captured it in Plyos and transferred it to the vastness of Lake Udomlya. Here on this sketch she is close.

Isaac Levitan. The wooden church in Ples in the last rays of the sun. 1888. Private collection.

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.

Isaac Levitan. Inside the Peter and Paul Church. 1888. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

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

But do not be surprised if the picture evokes in you other emotions, 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 the vast world."

In our time, the worldview is different. Still, a person goes into outer space and the Internet. And robotic vacuum cleaners roam our apartments.

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

What is the picturesque merit of the picture

Levitan is recognizable by its sophisticated forms. Thin tree trunks unmistakably betray the artist.

Isaac Levitan. Spring is big water. 1897. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

In the painting "Above Eternal Peace" there are no trees in close-up. But subtle forms are present. This and a narrow cloud across thunderclouds. And a slightly noticeable offshoot from the island. And a thin path leading to the church.

1894 150 x 206 cm.Oil, canvas.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

Description of the painting by Levitan I.I. "Over eternal rest"

Isaac Levitan's painting "Above Eternal Peace" is not only one of the most famous works of the master, but also the most philosophically filled, deep.

The work was carried out in the Tver province, near the city of Vyshny Volochek, and the picturesque church itself migrated to the canvas from a previously created sketch on Ples.

Levitan himself had a special attitude to this picture, there is even evidence that the entire period that went to work, the master asked his heartfelt friend Sofya Kuvshinnikova to play Beethoven's Heroic Symphony.

So, let's move on to the description. At first, you cannot look away from the wide expanses of water, which are located almost half of the picture, only later the eye notices a small wooden church and crosses lopsided from time to time - this is where the whole deep meaning laid down by the author begins to open.

Heavy clouds hang over the expanses of water, a gusty wind shakes the trees - all this evokes thoughts about the frailty and fleetingness of life, loneliness and transience, the meaning of existence and human purpose.

“Above Eternal Peace” touches upon eternal reflections on God, nature, the world, and oneself. One of the artists' closest friends called the painting a requiem in itself. Never again will Levitan create such a piercing creation.

Despite the philosophical grandiose program of the picture, it is imbued with love for the great beauty of nature, native spaces, and the Motherland. The Motherland, which drove the master from his beloved Moscow because of his Jewish origin, the Motherland, which considered the landscape genre beloved by Levitan to be secondary, the Motherland, which did not fully appreciate the outstanding unique talent - all the same, Levitan continued to love her, praise her in his work, and did not in vain the picture presented is considered "the most Russian" of all painted.

The best paintings of Levitan I.I.

There are also Russian artists of the Wanderers. Biographies. Paintings

Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy was born on May 27, 1837 in the city of Ostrogozhsk, Voronezh Region. He graduated from the Ostrogozh School in 1839. At the same time, the father of the future artist, who served as a clerk in the Duma, died. Kramskoy also worked as a clerk, an intermediary for amicable land surveying. Kramskoy's talent manifested itself already in his youth. The photographer Aleksandrovsky drew attention to the boy. Soon Kramskoy entered his service as a retoucher.

Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi was born on January 15, 1842 in Mariupol. His father was a poor shoemaker. Kuindzhi's parents died early, so the boy had to constantly fight poverty. He grazed geese, worked for a contractor who built a church, for a grain merchant. Knowledge had to be obtained in fits and starts. Kuindzhi took lessons from a Greek teacher, went to the city school.

One of the most interesting questions in cognitive science is what is human genius.

There are, for example, more or less generally accepted views on genius in mathematics, physics and other natural sciences.

But who is a genius from painting? In our opinion, this is an artist who, with the help of images, symbols and signs, sometimes hidden, but easily captured by the collective unconscious, is able to exert the deepest influence on those around him.

This small study is devoted to this.

Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas

Publius Vergilius Maro

Hidden images and meanings of one of the most famous paintings by Levitan

(Experiences of artistic investigation)

In major museums around the world, and the Tretyakov Gallery is rightfully one of them, it is sometimes interesting to observe not so much the paintings as the visitors. More precisely, behind some patterns of their behavior when examining exhibitions. You can often notice how they, often in a hurry to inspect as many rooms as possible in one go, stay a little longer near a particular picture. This means that the picture is "hooked" - sometimes at the level of the unconscious, which is often difficult to verbalize.

For example, in one of my favorite halls of the Tretyakov Gallery - the Levitan Hall - there are several such paintings. Pictures in which an amazing peazagist artist managed to encrypt his message at the level of direct appeal to the collective archetypal unconscious - at the level of signs, images and symbols.

Let's take a look at one of his most famous paintings "Above Eternal Peace".

Over eternal rest. 1894 Oil on canvas. 150 x 206. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

This is how it is described on the Tretyakov Gallery website:

“The image of Russian nature, devoid of bright colors and contrasts, is endowed with heroic features in this landscape. The artist contemplates the world as if from a bird's eye view. A panorama of the natural elements majestically unfolds before his gaze ... "

"The Search for Big Images. 1892-1894". The work of I. Levitan in the first half of the 1890s is distinguished by a variety of themes, motives, synthetics of images, and a rich arsenal of artistic means. One of the central sections of the exhibition includes the generally recognized masterpieces of the master, the monumental canvases "At the Pool" (1892), "Vladimirka" (1892), "Above Eternal Peace" (1894, all - State Tretyakov Gallery). They reveal the philosophical warehouse and the dramatic inner world of the artist, his reflections on the frailty of human existence in the face of eternity. (from materials for the exhibition "ISAAC LEVITAN. To the 150th anniversary of his birth", 2010-2011, (http://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/ru/calendar/exhibitions/exhibitions2160/)

And, perhaps, the last quote:

"1892 - creates the famous gloomy trilogy -" Vladimirka "," At the Pool "," Above Eternal Peace. " (http://isaak-levitan.ru/hrono.php)

We are absolutely not ready to agree with the last statement. It may seem like a purely subjective opinion, but at least two pictures from this "trilogy" have never made a "gloomy impression", which we will try to show on the example of the picture "Eternal Peace".

Let's start our little research together.

To begin with, a few preliminary remarks that we will need in the future to confirm our conclusions (even the smallest details will be important here).

First: Water

It is worth recalling that, according to the prevailing opinion of art critics, the picture depicts an imaginary place, drawn from the impressions of the Volga near the city of Plyos and Lake Udomlya. The Volga near Plyos is wide enough, and flows mainly from west to east (up to Yuryevets, where it turns south). The width of the Volga in the Plyos area is more than half a kilometer. There are islands upstream on the river, and its width there is already more than one and a half kilometers.

It is believed that Levitan began to work on Lake Udomlya, which is located not far from Vyshny Volochok. You can imagine what the lake was like at that time from the landscapes of the artist Vitold Kaetanovich Bialynitsky-Biruli:

An hour of silence. Lake Udomlya. 1911 g.

Church on Lake Udomelskoye. 1910 g.

Modern lake view

town of Plyos

Second: Temple

It is also believed that Levitan depicted in the picture a different church that actually stood on the shore of the lake (see above). As a model, he took a church from the city of Plyos (the wooden church of Peter and Paul of the 16th century, burned down in 1903):

Study "Wooden church in Plyos in the last rays of the sun", 1988, private collection, Moscow (http://isaak-levitan.ru/good/18.php)

At present, in the city of Plyos, on the so-called "Levitan's Mountain", instead of a burnt church, there is a very similar wooden church of the Resurrection. It is also old, and was moved from the village of Bilyukov in the same Ivanovo region. The church, in addition to its official name, received among the people a second, also almost "official" - "Over Eternal Peace" - for reasons that are quite understandable and worthy of respect (http://stage1.10russia.ru/sights/1/2297, http://www.volga-ples.ru/attractions/9.php). True, once the church had its own bell tower.

Resurrection church in the village of Bilyukovo (pre-revolutionary photo)

Modern photographs of the church "Above Eternal Peace"

Fast forward to one of the most beautiful places in the world, located on the Mediterranean Sea. This is the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro. There are two small islands in the bay - the island of St. George and the island of Gospa od Skrpela.

St. George Island. Benedictine Abbey.

Island Gospa od Shkrpela. Orthodox Church of the Mother of God on the Rock.

More information can be found, for example, here:

Let's compare these two islands:

Here, as nowhere else in the world, we clearly see that the altars (and bell towers) of Catholic and Orthodox churches are located in exactly the opposite way in their East-West orientation.

Why did we need this? Here's why:

The buildings, which are quite strictly oriented along the sides of the horizon, include churches, mosques, synagogues.

Altars and chapels of Christian and Lutheran churches face east, bell towers west.

The altars of Catholic churches are located on the western side.

The lowered edge of the lower crossbeam of the cross on the dome of the Orthodox Church faces south, the raised edge - to the north.

Why? Here's one explanation:

“Why are temples always facing east with the altar? The Old Testament tabernacle turned its holy of holies to the west and the door leading to the sanctuary to the east, as a sign that the Old Testament believers were still awaiting the coming of the promised Messiah, like the east from above. We, Christians, confess our Savior Jesus Christ, who has already come into the world, and therefore we turn the temples with our altar and ourselves in our prayers to face the East as the land of light, where the Sun of Truth, our Savior, dwells. In the east, in the land of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, about whom we must remember during divine services, was born, and lived, and suffered for our salvation. In the same place, in the east, there was also the blessed dwelling of the first people. " (Priest I. Svyatoslavsky. "Notes for reading about the temple", M., 1889. Quote from MDS 31-9.2003, volume 1, p. 55)

And here is a brief visual rule for installing crosses (including on graves):

Third: Thunderstorm

Levitan. Before the storm. 1890 Study. Canvas, oil. 26.2x35.8 cm. Smolensk Regional Museum of Fine and Applied Arts, Smolensk

Undoubtedly, Levitan was not just an outstanding, but a brilliant landscape painter. Therefore, as we can see in this sketch, it would not be difficult for him to create a feeling of anxiety at the approach of a formidable element.

However, if we go to the next hall, we will see the following picture there:

Dubovskoy N.N., Quiet. 1890

When we look at Levitan's sketch and at the nearby painting by Dubovsky, we have a very definite inner state of anxiety and understanding that there will soon be a thunderstorm - real, strong and sweeping away everything in its path. Since we all fell under a thunderstorm, and more than once, it is impossible to be mistaken in this.

One last thing: Sketch

Levitan. Sketch for the painting "Above Eternal Peace"

As we can see, the original design of the painting was somewhat different.

Now we have everything we need to start our little investigation.

Hypothesis

First of all, we would immediately like to put forward a hypothesis, which we are going to further prove.

Hypothesis: It is unfair to call Levitan's painting "Above Eternal Peace" a "gloomy" period in the work of the genius Russian artist. In fact, the picture is more than optimistic.

This is confirmed, among other things, by the fact that, as we will show below, while working on the painting, he radically revised its concept and symbolism, changing them to the opposite.

However, this also applies to the painting "At the Pool", in which there is even more symbolism and hidden images.

Study of the picture and proof of the hypothesis

A small introduction. The author of this work was once the champion of the country in sports campaigns, in which he played the role of a navigator who constantly worked with maps. In addition, he was also a professional military man, and therefore, purely automatically, out of habit, he immediately binds himself to the terrain to determine the point of his location.

This explains the fact that not being an art critic and not belonging to the world of artists, he nevertheless took the liberty of interpreting a well-known picture from a not entirely unusual point of view (sometimes from the outside you can see small details that have been missed by experts, paying (quite naturally) more attention to the artistic aspects of the paintings and the peculiarities of the work / biographies of their authors).

In addition, it helped that at the anniversary exhibition of Levitan in 2011, in the new building of the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val, the painting itself and a sketch from the private collection "Wooden Church in Plyos in the Last Rays of the Sun" were nearby. A lucky coincidence.

It would be possible to determine, for example, along the course of the river and by the Coriolis forces in the northern hemisphere (by the difference in the steepness of the left and right banks). However, in this case, we see that the artist depicted both banks as gentle. Let's compare, for example, with the banks in another painting by Levitan:

Evening. Golden Plyos, 1889

But this is unlikely to succeed also because even if it is the Volga in the Plyos area, then, as we mentioned earlier, there it flows from west to east.

Note: However, the painting has a purely subjective feeling water movement that does not happen on the lake. At the same time, the movement is directed at the viewer, which is again characteristic of the Volga flow just in the Plyos area.

Nevertheless, we see that the shores will not help us here. We must look for another clue.

And she is. Church.

The location of the church will help us - or rather, the location of its altar and cross on the dome.

Let's take a closer look.

First stroke of the brush: Temple

And here we are faced with the first riddle, even a secret.

The lower crossbar of the cross on the dome looks right end up, that is, to the North. Therefore, we stand from the East and look to the West.

But if you look closely, you can see how the artist rewrote the cross, which is visible even with the naked eye.

Having become interested in this, I had to take a closer look at the study. Let's do it too:

As we can see, in the study, Levitan did not pay much attention to the exact image of the cross. Moreover, he is not carefully spelled out, and it can even be assumed that he is looking in the other direction (if the sun is on the right, and not its reflections).

But if we look closely, we will see the entrance door to the temple, facing us. That is, on the reverse side there is an altar facing the East.

And the church in the main picture is turned in the other direction... Moreover, it was deployed later, and we will see this right now.

How? We see a path that can only lead to the entrance to the church:

Second stroke of the brush: Road

And since we already know what we should be looking for, it will not be difficult. If the artist changed the concept of the painting, then he had to change the direction of the path, which in the first version should have turned to the left earlier. Let's take a closer look:

Exactly. We got it right. It can be seen that earlier the path (yellow) went to the left much earlier, and traces of this remained in the picture - you can see the remains of yellow paint on the left:

But then the artist painted over the first path (but not completely, as if leaving us a hint) - sending it with a few light strokes of this very yellow paint further, to the opposite side of the temple ..

And finally

Third stroke of the brush: Light

And now Levitan, without specially drawing the altar window (as can be seen in the photographs above), “cuts through” it with red-yellow light coming from inside the altar:

That is, there is a living person in the altar, and this person (priest? Monk?) Is serving the evening service. And, most likely, one, because the path is clearly less-traveled.

What is left for the artist to "finish"? Enclose the altar with thickets (in the sketch, as we saw, the trees were located on both sides of the church).

And draw an abandoned cemetery:

Where, as we can see, three six-pointed crosses are located similarly to the cross on the dome, and the other three are in the opposite direction, like another hint from the artist. At the same time, one of these last crosses is spelled out as if "carelessly", and the two remaining ones (on the far right of the trees) are quite thoroughly and distinctly.

Brief conclusions

Levitan, as it were, gives us hints all the time about how exactly he changed the idea of ​​his painting. What he wanted to do, and what happened in the end.

It should be remembered that the artist deeply knew Orthodoxy, its ritual part and dogma. Therefore, he could not be mistaken in the location (orientation) of the church, even if it was in a place he had invented.

It turns out that with the initial plan, the temple looked in a completely different direction, and then it was morning before the storm ... Then the clouds really should have been thunderstorms (compare with the above-described sketch of Levitan himself and the neighboring painting by Dubovsky).

But in the process of work, Levitan decided to change everything exactly the opposite. That is, he depicted on the final version of the picture evening ... And now it is a usual situation for the second half of the day, when against the background of the setting sun in the west, the clouds become darker, and the wind rises near the water, characteristic of the time of sunrise and sunset.

Note: the exact time can also be determined from the picture, but we don't really need it in this particular case.

We deliberately did not analyze other strong archetypal images here. For example, very briefly, you can only mention the triad "Earth-Man-Sky", which Levitan introduces into his picture by designating the presence of a person in it (light in the altar). As a true landscape painter, he cannot depict people, but with a brilliant simple smear of red paint, he makes us literally physically see a Man who is present just in the middle between the Earth and Heaven. The triad symbol is a symbol of unification, while dualism is always opposition. And thanks to this seemingly insignificant detail, the picture is transformed. Let's try to mentally block this light, and everything instantly "goes out". We return the light - and nature is spiritualized, because at this late hour a person is present in this world and prays for it.

That is why this picture unconsciously does not at all produce the gloomy impression that we are told about. It is quite bright, optimistic, full of symbols, signs and hidden clues.

We will never know whether Levitan did it on purpose or not. Given his talent, he could unconsciously break through to such a high level of creativity. Why the impact of the picture on the viewer becomes even stronger.

Easily, as if playfully, the genius of the Russian landscape changed Space and, thus, Time in his painting. With a few strokes of the brush.

P.S. Many thanks to the curators of the Tretyakov Gallery, who allowed them to photograph Levitan's paintings at the exhibition in exchange for a promise to write and publish the article. I keep my promise.

Moscow city
2011-2015
© Mitrofanov A.N.
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Over eternal rest, 1894

Over eternal rest is one of the darkest and, at the same time, significant works of Levitan, about which he himself wrote in a letter to Pavel Tretyakov: "In it - I am all. With all my psyche, with all my content ..." Levitan wrote this picture to the sounds of the Funeral March from Beethoven's Heroic Symphony. It was under such solemn and sad music that the work was born, which one of the artist's friends called "a requiem for himself."

Over Eternal Peace, 1894. Painting by Levitan. Masterpieces of the Russian landscape, photo - Isaac Levitan. Official site. Life and creation. Painting, graphics, old photos. - Over eternal rest. High promontory, water, gray lake, shore, chapel, earth, melancholy, darkness, loneliness. Isaac Levitan, painting, masterpiece, drawings, photos, biography.

Mikhail Nesterov about Isaac Levitan:

“It's always pleasant for me to talk about Levitan, but also sad. Just think: he was only a year older than me, and I still work. , all who knew and loved him, all the old and new admirers of his talent - a wonderful artist-poet. 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 the lyrical images of his native nature, becoming 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 the callous realism is the untimely deceased Levitan. The first time Levitan drew attention to himself at the Traveling Exhibition of 1891. He exhibited before, and even for several years, but then did not differ from our other landscape painters, from their common, gray and sluggish mass. The appearance of the "Quiet Cloister" made, on the contrary, a surprisingly vivid impression. the exhibition hall, where it smelled so disgusting from an excessive amount of sheepskin coats and greased boots ... "