Alexey Savrasov was born in the family of a poor haberdashery merchant in Moscow. He became interested in painting when he was a child. By the age of 12, Savrasov already could paint quite well. The young artist painted landscapes with gouache and watercolors and based on the romantic motifs inspired by Ivan Aivazovsky which was a fashionable art trend at that time.
In 1844, he entered the Moscow school of painting and sculpture. He sold his paintings and spent the earned money to pay for the first months of his education. But his family had hard times: after a serious illness, the artist’s mother died, and he had to leave school for several years to help his family. Only in 1848, due to efforts of his teacher Karl Rabus, Savrasov was able to continue his education in landscape painting class and scenography class.
Alexey Savrasov was a successful student: during his travel across Ukraine, he created artworks which led some critics to call him “the hope of the Russian art”. The young artist was only 19 years old at that time. Nikolai Ramazanov, a coach at the Moscow school of painting and sculpture, wrote about his landscape paintings in the “Moskovityanin” magazine: “They are full of freshness, diversity and the power that the artist”s brush is able to show when the artist has a warm and at the same time reasonable view of nature.”
In summer 1854, when he was supposed to graduate, Savrasov created two paintings, which he demonstrated during the autumn exhibition held by the Academy of Arts: “View in the vicinity of Oranienbaum” and “Sea coast in the vicinity of Oranienbaum”. For these artworks the artist was awarded the title of academician. In 1858 the artist became the head of the scenery painting class at the Moscow school of painting and sculpture.
Savrasov was a well-known landscape painter already during his lifetime, in his artworks drawing had always played a special role. The artist had been using drawing throughout all his life and he used to tell his student to do the same, he called drawing ’a major pillar of painting’. The artwork “Trees in the meadow” is an example of easel graphics, an individual drawing. This drawing is made with the use of a wide variety of techniques: shading, different strokes — round, straight horizontal and vertical, cross. The drawing is made on primed French paper (papier-pelle), which made it possible to use even more complicated technique. Besides using the pencil, the artist uses scraping and scratching techniques — for which this paper was suitable. The contrasting play of light and shadow, saturated color on a soft background with shaded grayish tones create the spirit of this lyrical scenery.
In 1844, he entered the Moscow school of painting and sculpture. He sold his paintings and spent the earned money to pay for the first months of his education. But his family had hard times: after a serious illness, the artist’s mother died, and he had to leave school for several years to help his family. Only in 1848, due to efforts of his teacher Karl Rabus, Savrasov was able to continue his education in landscape painting class and scenography class.
Alexey Savrasov was a successful student: during his travel across Ukraine, he created artworks which led some critics to call him “the hope of the Russian art”. The young artist was only 19 years old at that time. Nikolai Ramazanov, a coach at the Moscow school of painting and sculpture, wrote about his landscape paintings in the “Moskovityanin” magazine: “They are full of freshness, diversity and the power that the artist”s brush is able to show when the artist has a warm and at the same time reasonable view of nature.”
In summer 1854, when he was supposed to graduate, Savrasov created two paintings, which he demonstrated during the autumn exhibition held by the Academy of Arts: “View in the vicinity of Oranienbaum” and “Sea coast in the vicinity of Oranienbaum”. For these artworks the artist was awarded the title of academician. In 1858 the artist became the head of the scenery painting class at the Moscow school of painting and sculpture.
Savrasov was a well-known landscape painter already during his lifetime, in his artworks drawing had always played a special role. The artist had been using drawing throughout all his life and he used to tell his student to do the same, he called drawing ’a major pillar of painting’. The artwork “Trees in the meadow” is an example of easel graphics, an individual drawing. This drawing is made with the use of a wide variety of techniques: shading, different strokes — round, straight horizontal and vertical, cross. The drawing is made on primed French paper (papier-pelle), which made it possible to use even more complicated technique. Besides using the pencil, the artist uses scraping and scratching techniques — for which this paper was suitable. The contrasting play of light and shadow, saturated color on a soft background with shaded grayish tones create the spirit of this lyrical scenery.
