The collection of the Engels Museum of Local Lore houses a study “Boats on the Volga” painted by Yakov Yakovlevich Weber in the village of Shcherbakovka.

In 1909, at the age of 39, Yakov Weber finished his long period of studying at the Academy of Arts. At that time, he painted a lot from life, visited exhibitions in St. Petersburg, and learned about the work of famous masters who were members of the Union of Russian Artists: Ilya Ostroukhov, Konstantin Yuon, Konstantin Korovin, Pyotr Petrovichev, Leonard Turzhansky, Stanislav Zhukovsky and others. These painters were mostly known for their landscapes. Close to Weber’s worldview, their paintings undoubtedly made a vivid impression on the artist. Yakov Weber’s favorite techniques were fragmentation and high horizon. This point of view made it possible to pay more attention to the depiction of river waters, in which Weber reached the levels comparable to the seascapes of the legendary marine painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky.

While studying at the Academy, Weber traveled every summer to the Volga, where he painted his studies, which later brought the artist real recognition. It was there, in his native land, that the master’s own artistic style began to take shape, and the artist’s tastes and preferences were formed. Studies of this period are distinguished by a special color of the Volga, accentuated framing of objects in the foreground, and deliberately simple composition, which subtly reveals the pictorial and sculptural meaning of the landscape motif and the elemental grandeur.

The canvas depicts a clear summer day, with boats near the shore, partially cut off by the edge of the canvas and painted in a picturesque line against the background of the water; the impasto strokes make the colors sparkle, joyfully playing in the sun with vibrant shades, generously scattered by the master’s bold brush. Perhaps Konstantin Korovin’s impressionistic canvases revived Weber’s Saratov impressions associated with the blue Volga floods, revealing to the artist such aspects of painting as light, air, richness of color, flutter and texture of brushstrokes.