Isaac Levitan1860–1900By the Pool
May one see it?
Unknown
Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
By the Pool is a landscape by the Russian artist Isaac Levitan (1860–1900), completed in 1892. It is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (inventory 1484). The size is 150×209 cm (according to other sources 151.5×212 cm). The foreground of the canvas shows small bridges leading into the timbers of a dam, with a pond to the right. On the other side of the river, a narrow path leads past coastal bushes into a dark twilight forest.
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Levitan began to work on the picture in 1891 in the Tver province, using as a model the natural landscape near the Tma River near the village of Bernovo. In the winter of 1891/1892 he continued to work on the painting in Moscow, and in February 1892 it was presented at the 20th Exhibition of the Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions ("Peredvizhniki"), which opened in St. Petersburg. Directly from the exhibition canvas was bought from the author by Pavel Tretyakov, in agreement with whom Levitan later finalized the image of the water surface, using sketches written by him in the summer of 1892 in the Vladimir province.
The painting By the Pool is one of the three greatest works of the artist — together with the paintings Over Eternal Peace (1894) and Lake (1899–1900) Together with two other works from the first half of the 1890s —Over Eternal Peace and Vladimirka (1892)— By the Pool is sometimes grouped into the so-called "dark" or "dramatic" trilogy of Levitan.
Art historian Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov considered the work By the Pool to be "the first experience on the way of creating a national image in the landscape", and called it "one of the outstanding canvases of itinerant landscape painting", at the same time noting that this painting "is not an undisputed success" Levitan. The art historian Grigory Sternin wrote that the size of the canvas and "a somewhat dramatized characteristic of the object and color environment" indicate that one of the author's goals was "to create an epic spectacle, not devoid of elements of fairy-tale theatricality".
In the museum's own words — in Russian
Расцвет русской пейзажной живописи неразрывно связан с именем Исаака Левитана. Написанные им картины входят в золотую коллекцию Третьяковской галереи, являясь настоящими шедеврами отечественного искусства. Наследник традиций реалистической живописи, Левитан в своем творчестве сумел придать жанру пейзажа эмоциональную выразительность и в некоторых произведениях возвести запечатленные им виды природы до философского прочтения. Полотно «У омута» – одно из самых масштабных и интригующих произведений в творческом наследии Левитана.
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Замысел картины возник у мастера в 1891 году в имении баронессы Анны Вульф – Берново в Тверской губернии, там же был написан и первоначальный этюд к полотну. Художника привлек вид заброшенной мельничной плотины. По легенде, рассказанной ему хозяйкой имения, это место вдохновило Александра Пушкина на создание «Русалки». Очарованный таким совпадением, живописец драматизирует пейзаж, придает ему мистическое звучание. Написание полотна велось Левитаном в соседнем имении Панафидиных – Покровском, где для живописца под мастерскую был выделен большой светлый зал барского дома. Основная же работа продолжилась в Москве осенью того же года.
Над таинственной глубиной омута застыли сумеречные облака, притихший, словно притаившийся, стоящий непроходимой стеной лес рождает чувство настороженности, смутной тревоги. Будто зловещими призраками отражаются силуэты деревьев, в своем молчании таящие смутное прошлое. Согласно фольклорной традиции, омут – гиблое место, символизирующее несчастье; так и на картине Левитана – засасывающая гладь омута словно предвещает беду.
Tretyakov Gallery
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1484
In the catalog
Sources
- Tretyakov Gallery
- Image: Tretyakov Gallery — Museum open access
Meanwhile, in the life of Isaac Levitan
The whole lifelate 1889 – early 1890
His first trip to Western Europe
He visits France and Italy, wanting to get to know modern painting better as shown at the World Exhibition in Paris — probably above all the Barbizon school and the Impressionists. According to Nesterov, in the West he became convinced that the path he had chosen was the right one.
March 1891
Admitted to the Peredvizhniki Association
In March 1891 he becomes a member of the Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions.
spring 1892
The 20th Peredvizhniki exhibition: “Autumn”, “At the Whirlpool”, “Summer”, “October”
By spring 1892 he finishes “Autumn”, begun in autumn 1891, and shows it at the 20th Peredvizhniki exhibition together with three more paintings: “At the Whirlpool”, “Summer” and “October”.
1892
Forced to leave Moscow again
As a “person of the Jewish faith” he is made to leave Moscow and for a time lives in the Tver and Vladimir governorates; thanks to his friends' efforts he is allowed to return “as an exception”.
1892
A quarrel with Chekhov over “The Grasshopper”
In the plot of his story “The Grasshopper” the writer used moments from the relationship of Levitan, his pupil Sofia Kuvshinnikova and her husband, the doctor Dmitry Kuvshinnikov — and the episode clouded the friendship between the two men.
summer 1894
A romance with Anna Turchaninova and the break with Kuvshinnikova
In summer 1894 Levitan and Sofia Kuvshinnikova are staying with the Ushakovs at the Ostrovno estate (he had met V. N. Ushakov a year earlier at Kurovo-Pokrovskoye); Anna Nikolaevna Turchaninova arrives at the neighbouring estate of Gorka with her two daughters, and Levitan begins an affair with her. The upset Kuvshinnikova returns to Moscow and never meets him again.
