Golden Autumn (painting by Levitan)

Work on the painting began in the fall of 1895 - at the time when Levitan lived in the Gorka estate, located one and a half kilometers from the village of Ostrovno , located in the Vyshnevolotsky district of the Tver province , and now part of the Udomelsky district of the Tver region . The estate was owned by Privy Councilor Ivan Nikolaevich Turchaninov , Senator and Assistant to the Mayor of St. Petersburg . His wife Anna Nikolaevna often spent time there with her daughters Varvara, Sofia and Anna ^[8] .

Levitan met Anna Nikolaevna Turchaninova in the summer of 1894 in Ostrovno, and they began an affair. Soon after, Levitan moved to the Gorka estate and lived there in August and September 1894, and then returned there in the early spring of 1895 - it was then that his painting “ March ” ^{[9] [10]} was painted. In late March, Levitan returned to Moscow, and in early May he again came to Gorka, where he lived until early October (and also, possibly, returned there for several days in the second half of October) ^[11] . Especially for the artist on the estate was built a two-story house-workshop located on the lake ^[8] .

It is believed that the painting depicts the Syezh River flowing near Ostrovno - this place was only half a kilometer from the Gorka estate ^{[12] [13]} . According to the artist Vitold Bialynitsky-Biruli , who also worked in those places, the picture was painted according to the sketch made by Levitan during his stay in Gorka ^[5] . The art critic Faina Maltseva also believes that the artist used autumn sketches created in Gorka, and the final version of the painting “Golden Autumn” was already written by him in Moscow ^[3] . According to her, the impression that the landscape was painted from nature is due to the “exceptional visual memory and inspired craftsmanship” of the painter ^[3] . Apparently, it was precisely the enthusiastic work on this landscape that made Levitan in a letter dated November 13, 1895 reject the offer of the artist Vasily Polenov to visit him in the estate of Borok ^{[3] [14]} :

Together with nine other works of Levitan, among which were “ March ”, “ Fresh Wind. Volga ”,“ Twilight ”,“ Ferns in the Bor ”,“ Nenufary ”and others ^{[15] [16]} , the painting“ Golden Autumn ”was exhibited at the 24th exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions (“ Wanderers ”), which opened in February 1896 years in St. Petersburg, and in March moved to Moscow with an exhibition ^[11] . She was also represented at the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod ^[1] .

In May 1896, directly from the Traveling Exhibition, which by then was still taking place in Moscow, the canvas was purchased from the author by Pavel Tretyakov for 700 rubles ^{[17] [18]} . True, the implementation of this transaction was delayed for some reason: Levitan’s first receipt of money for the painting was dated May 10, and in a letter dated May 29 he wrote that “yesterday, returning from a trip, he met P. M. Tretyakov , who, why he now decided to buy my painting “Golden Autumn”, having seen it dozens of times, ”and only on June 3 he informed Tretyakov:“ My painting “Golden Autumn” has not been sold yet, and therefore I consider it for you. Needless to say, I am very glad that you wished to have it ” ^{[17] [19]} .

Continuing his journey with other paintings of the 24th Traveling Exhibition, in November 1896 the canvas also visited Kharkov , where it was in trouble - it was damaged by the copper visor of the wall heater that fell through it and broke through the canvas. About this incident in a letter to Ilya Ostroukhov dated November 22, 1896, said the artist and Commissioner of the Exhibition Partnership George (Egor) Khruslov ^{[20] [21]} :

Subsequently, this damage was so skillfully repaired by the Moscow restorer. Dmitry Artsybashev that it went almost unnoticed ^[18] .

Purchased by Pavel Tretyakov, the painting in the same 1896 was donated to them by the Tretyakov Gallery. In the catalogs of 1896 and 1917, this canvas appeared under the name "Autumn" ^[1] . Levitan himself was not completely satisfied with this work, considering it somewhat “rude” ^[22] . In 1896, he painted another, less well-known picture with the same name - “Golden Autumn”, which is also in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery (canvas on cardboard, oil, 52 × 84.6 cm , inv. 5635) ^{[23] [24] [25]} .

Levitan loved to paint autumn landscapes - he had more than a hundred paintings related to this time of year ^[26] . Among them, the painting "Golden Autumn" has become one of the most famous and popular works of the artist ^[27] . It depicts a small river surrounded by trees covered with yellow and red autumn foliage. In the distance you can see village houses, fields, and further on the horizon - an autumn forest, painted in shades of yellow. And above all this - a blue sky, through which light clouds float ^[28] . Bright, major, optimistic colors of this picture are not characteristic of Levitan's work - he usually used softer and more gentle tones ^[27] .

The angle that allows the artist to depict a wide and multifaceted landscape has been successfully selected. Despite some asymmetry, the composition of the picture does not seem unbalanced: the load on the left side is compensated by the “grouping of objects, the distribution of lighted and shaded masses, the division of plans”. At the left edge of the canvas, a closeup is a group of trees - birches with bright yellow foliage and aspen with the last reddened leaves. They create a “bright and sonorous spot”, in contrast to which the river shown to the right of them seems dark and cold ^[28] . The surface of the river also looks like a large color spot, the basis of which is blue, to which brownish reflections of the banks are added ^[29] .

Following along the river banks, the viewer's eye crosses wide meadows with copses on both sides of the river, and then goes to the forests depicted in the distance. On the right bank of the river stands a lonely slender golden yellow birch. As you go deeper, the sonority of color gradually softens and turns into a calmer color scheme ^[28] .

As in the " March " picture, the main components of the "Golden Autumn" color scheme are yellow, blue and green. At the same time, a significant difference between these paintings is that the spring landscape is dominated by colder tones, and in the autumn - warmer. In “Golden Autumn”, green plays only a small, supporting role, while the main emotional burden falls on the yellow color, which “determines the solemn joy and calm, self-confident beauty” of the picture ^[30] .

Another parallel between “Mart” and “Golden Autumn” is that these paintings are considered as examples that most clearly demonstrate the impact of impressionism on Levitan's work ^[6] . Indeed, in Golden Autumn, the expressiveness of the stroke is of particular importance, which in this picture is even more energetic and diverse than in Marta. In particular, foliage of birches was painted with expressive pasty expressive strokes, where in places the paint was applied so thickly that it gives the impression of relief ^[30] . In the picture, the traditional style of painting is naturally combined “with a free, almost impressionistic interpretation of individual details”, but the difference from classical impressionism is that the color does not dissolve in the light, but retains its intensity ^[2] .

The art critic Aleksey Fedorov-Davydov wrote that the painting “Golden Autumn” “amazes and captivates with the fullness and beauty of its emotional content, so definitely expressed in color splendor, in the major sound of a golden colorful palette”. In his opinion, before the appearance of this picture, none of the representatives of Russian landscape painting (including Levitan himself) “gave such a solemn, joyful in his calmness image of autumn, such a display of the“ magnificent nature of wilting ”” ^[5] .

Comparing “Golden Autumn” with the painting “ March ” painted in the spring of the same year, art critic Dmitry Sarabyanov wrote that there is no fragmentation in the autumn landscape, that is, a “sensation of a fragment of nature” that was inherent in “Marta”. According to him, the artist was inspired by the "unusual, striking color scheme, in which the contrast of gold and blue" plays the key role in creating the painting "Golden Autumn". At the same time, he noted the natural poise of the composition of the picture, which is “deployed to the viewer and wide” ^[31] .

According to the art historian Faina Maltseva , the image created in this picture “carries a deep and multifaceted content”, which “is revealed as one peers into the image, as it lyrically empathizes”. In the process of peering, one can understand that the artist’s goal was not only to convey elegant autumn colors, but also to show “such precious features that help us to see an image of great wholeness and poetry behind this elegant, somewhat decorative form” ^[28] .

• List of paintings by Isaac Ilyich Levitan
• Golden Autumn (painting by Ostroukhov)
• Golden Autumn (painting by Polenov)

• Levitan I. I. Letters, documents, memoirs / A. A. Fedorov-Davydov . - M .: Art , 1956. - 335 p.
• Maltseva F.S. Masters of the Russian landscape. The second half of the XIX century. Part 4. - M .: Art , 2002. - 84 p. - ISBN 9785210013484 .
• Paustovsky K. G. Collected Works in eight volumes. - M .: Fiction , 1969. - T. 6.
• Petrov V.A. Isaac Ilyich Levitan. - SPb. : Artist of Russia, 1992. - 200 p. - (Russian painters of the 19th century).
• Petrov V.A. Isaac Levitan. - M .: White City, 2000. - ISBN 5-7793-0250-2 .
• The Prophet S.A. Levitan. - M .: Young Guard , 1960 .-- 240 p. - (The life of wonderful people).
• Sarabyanov D.V. History of Russian art of the second half of the XIX century. - M .: Publishing house of Moscow University , 1989. - 381 p.
• Fedorov-Davydov A.A. Isaac Ilyich Levitan. Life and art. - M .: Art , 1966. - 403 p.
• Fedorov-Davydov A. A. Russian and Soviet art: articles and essays . - M .: Art , 1975 .-- 739 p.
• Filippov V.A. Impressionism in Russian painting. - M .: White City , 2003 .-- 320 p. - ISBN 5-7793-0577-3 .
• State Tretyakov Gallery - collection catalog / Y. V. Brook , L. I. Iovleva . - M .: Red Square, 2001. - T. 4: Painting of the second half of the 19th century, book 1, A — M. - 528 s. - ISBN 5-900743-56-X .
• Isaac Ilyich Levitan. Documents, materials, bibliography / A. A. Fedorov-Davydov . - M .: Art , 1966. - 240 p.
• Partnership of Traveling Art Exhibitions, 1869-1899. Letters, documents / V.V. Andreeva, S.N. Goldstein. - M .: Art , 1987. - T. 2. - 667 p.

• "Golden Autumn" in the database of the Tretyakov Gallery
• Isaac Ilyich Levitan - Best Paintings, Landscapes - Golden Autumn, 1895 (Neopr.) (HTML). isaak-levitan.ru. Date of treatment July 9, 2016. Archived on September 27, 2012.