UNIT 5
Vladimirka
Isaac Ilyich Levitan was a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the mood landscape, in which the shape and condition of nature are spiritualized, and become carriers of conditions of the human soul. Levitan's work was a profound response to the lyrical charm of the Russian landscape. He did not paint urban landscapes.
The picture “Vladimirka” (1892) is a rare example of social historical landscape, as the artist mostly created “landscapes of mood” and it was the main theme of all his works where he introduced the scenes of unity of mankind and nature.
On this very picture the painter depicts the Vladimirka road which was taken by the exiles to reach Siberia. While choosing the subject for this picture Levitan was probably making reference to his own exile, which occurred in the same times. Like many other people he was evicted from Moscow, because he was Jewish.
It’s an oil picture. In the foreground we can see that famous Vladimirka road, which than runs through fields and woods, which are depicted on the background and disappears in the distance. On the left from the centre we can see a tiny person standing in front of the road icon and that’s not for chance. It was a special master’s manner to minimize a person’s presence on the natural background. Far in a distance a church which is hard to distinguish is placed. The depicted landscape is flat and except the forest on the background lacks vegetation, all we can see is yellowish grass.
Dark tones prevail on the canvas. Levitan chooses different shades of brown for the lower part of the picture and blue-gray colour for the upper part of it. The prevailing of the shade over light renders the dramatic emotion. The landscape is rather dull and even difficult to stand out, there no even a beam of a sun peeking from behind the clouds, as if the painter wanted to say there is no even a ray of hope for those who would take this road. The master skillfully depicts “atmospheric colour” – the green of the wood on a great distance is affected by the veil of atmosphere and that’s why their local colour is changed to dark blue. With the help of special choice of colour Levitan made the filled the picture with a tragic loneliness and melancholy.
The famous Vlaimirka road is a symbolic image which conveys a realistic message. The road has no end and the prisoners who take it are forever wanderers. The person who looks so small and lost over the large field expresses the idea that Russia is so vast that human beings “vanish” in unlimited space. These heavy clouds looming over the person and the forest waiting for him in the distance can show that he is absolutely unprotected from nature like people were absolutely unprotected from lawlessness of authorities those days and the only one thing could help them stay strong that was religion. That’s why the master put on the road icon and a small church on the picture.