Artist Vasily Polenov painted urban and rural landscapes, genre scenes, historical tableaus. Polenov was born in St. Petersburg, to a noble family with a long lineage. He graduated from the Academy of Arts with a Grand Gold Medal and went on an Academy-sponsored tour. For six years, he lived and worked in Europe: in France, Germany and Italy. He studied different painting schools by visiting museums. During the journeys, he passed once through a small seaside town of Veules in northern France. For a few months in 1874, he stayed at Veules, working with Russian painter Ilya Repin. Polenov painted landscapes and studies from nature en plein air, i.e. in the open air. The exhibited study dates back to that period.
Mood landscape is a style of landscape painting associated with a few names of Russian masters, such as Isaak Levitan, Alexei Savrasov and Vasily Polenov. These artists tried to render emotions in images of nature. In the study, Polenov expressed quiet melancholy inspired by a remote corner of an old garden. The squat gray-stoned gate is adorned by fancy sculpture that gives an idea of long-faded grandeur. Shapely and slender tree trunks are crowned with heaps of leaves growing yellow. An autumn sun is shining on the scenery, and long shadows stretch across the grass.
The study is imbued with lyric sentiment, and the author subtly captures the feeling of serene melancholy and calmness of a warm autumn day. Among the trees, a small fragment of the sea can be seen, with a white sailboat on it that seems to be calling the viewer to go away towards far romantic horizons. In this early work, Polenov revealed the full extent of his peculiar manner as a landscape painter — he was a subtle romanticist who excelled in plein air techniques. The study was the basis for a later canvas entitled In the Park. The Village of Veules in Normandy, which stays now at the State Russian Museum.
The artist influenced the Russian school of landscape. The highlight of his career was the painting A Moscow Courtyard that features a typical spot of the old patriarchal Moscow. Besides landscapes, Vasily Polenov painted historical tableaus and pictures based on religious subjects.
Mood landscape is a style of landscape painting associated with a few names of Russian masters, such as Isaak Levitan, Alexei Savrasov and Vasily Polenov. These artists tried to render emotions in images of nature. In the study, Polenov expressed quiet melancholy inspired by a remote corner of an old garden. The squat gray-stoned gate is adorned by fancy sculpture that gives an idea of long-faded grandeur. Shapely and slender tree trunks are crowned with heaps of leaves growing yellow. An autumn sun is shining on the scenery, and long shadows stretch across the grass.
The study is imbued with lyric sentiment, and the author subtly captures the feeling of serene melancholy and calmness of a warm autumn day. Among the trees, a small fragment of the sea can be seen, with a white sailboat on it that seems to be calling the viewer to go away towards far romantic horizons. In this early work, Polenov revealed the full extent of his peculiar manner as a landscape painter — he was a subtle romanticist who excelled in plein air techniques. The study was the basis for a later canvas entitled In the Park. The Village of Veules in Normandy, which stays now at the State Russian Museum.
The artist influenced the Russian school of landscape. The highlight of his career was the painting A Moscow Courtyard that features a typical spot of the old patriarchal Moscow. Besides landscapes, Vasily Polenov painted historical tableaus and pictures based on religious subjects.
