The 1930s marked the creative heyday of a remarkable artist and master of landscape painting Yakov Yakovlevich Weber. During this period, the painter created a number of amazing paintings depicting the Volga: “Belyana”, “The Last Passage”, “Boat with a Sail” and others.

The painting “The Last Passage” was created on the right high bank of the Volga River near the settlement of Shcherbakovka. The image is based on very delicate color nuances. Winter has arrived, the first snow has fallen, and life on the river comes to a standstill. The chilling wind hides the horizon and the coastal mountainous landscape. Dark cold water occupies the whole foreground, snow has covered the shore and the boats sleep near the shore. The cold silvery-gray coloring of the painting and the diffused light enhance the impression of winter silence. It is cold, dreary, and lonely. The last steamer at the snow-covered wharf is waiting for rare passengers to go on its last passage. The landscape is influenced by the artist’s personal attitude, there are no color and light contrasts in the painting. Weber’s work is tonal, calm in color, but very picturesque thanks to the delicate movement of the brush and accents of color in the right places of the composition. Yakov Weber does not have an interest for details; deftly wielding his brush, the artist generalizes the form with textured brushstrokes.

Many studies and paintings by Yakov Weber, including “The Last Passage”, were acquired after exhibitions for the Central Museum of the Volga German Republic (now the Engels Museum of Local Lore), which in turn marked the start of the museum’s collection of the artist’s works. Weber always wanted his works to remain in his homeland rather than go abroad. So, the museum offered 1000 rubles for the painting “The Last Passage”, but Yakov Weber refused, saying that he would not take more than 600 rubles, as some foreign commission did not give more than 600 rubles. Weber kept a detailed record of the location of each canvas, in the hope of opening his solo exhibition entitled “Volga and Its Environs”. People’s Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky, who visited Saratov and Engels in those years, highly praised the works of the painter, making special mention of the canvas “The Last Passage”.