Landscape was the main genre for artists who, like Leonard Viktorovich Turzhansky, joined the Union of Russian Artists. Carrying on the landscape traditions of Savrasov and Levitan, artists of the Union depicted nature in its fleeting, transitional state, paying much attention to the air and lighting (this time following the Impressionist traditions). Instead of large paintings with a complex structure, the artists turned to small studies, intending to move closer to nature in order to depict it.
“Horses Standing Near the Porch” is one of the artist’s typical works in terms of choice of both the subject and the artistic means and techniques. Turzhansky was a quiet and modest lyricist, who chose views of the northern Ural nature, often rural landscapes. In this work, he paints a laconic yet heartfelt picture of a Russian village.
Turzhansky combined genre painting with landscape, which was characteristic of other Moscow artists of the Union — Abram Yefimovich Arkhipov, Alexey Stepanovich Stepanov and Sergey Vasilyevich Ivanov. The main role in the painting is played not by the depicted event itself but rather by the state of nature.
The painting depicts a peasant yard with horses harnessed to sleds and standing near the porch. The artist achieved a bright color palette by building a contrast between the cold shades of the blue snow and the warm brown spots of the houses and animals. The technique used in the painting, the thickness of the strokes and the broad manner of painting create an impression of vivid immediacy.
After graduating from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Turzhansky bought a house with two rooms in Istok. Maly Istok was a village where Yekaterinburg intelligentsia liked to spend the summer. The artist came there as a child with his parents for vacation, and later, when he was a student, to paint studies. In 1912, the artist built a long outbuilding to his house — a barn with windows. This outbuilding became his only studio, where he worked for the rest of his life.
Turzhansky said, “A view of the Urals has all the shades of color that we, artists, are fascinated by. All one needs to do is take a very good look at them and memorize them as well as possible.”
