The painting “Mirror of Spasskoye” is one of the numerous lyrical landscapes by Andrey Ilyich Kurnakov. It depicts, perhaps, the artist’s most favorite place in the most favorite time of the year. The painter was extremely fond of the Spasskoye-Lutovinovo village in Oryol Oblast. He often depicted it in different conditions, especially in autumn.
After tedious hard work, Kurnakov often went to Spasskoye to “relax” and brought his sketchbook, brushes, and paints. He wandered for hours, walking tens of kilometers along Turgenev’s hunting trails, looking for an interesting motif or a captivating scene. The artist brought home dozens of sketches, some of which later became serious works.
Kurnakov would frequently paint the pond. It served as the basis for many landscape paintings, including the ones illustrating the Bunin theme.
The canvas features an old pond, lost in the shade of trees, a typical corner of central Russia. The artist depicts a quiet and peaceful picture of Russian nature. The canvas does not impress with vibrant and varied colors, and it does not excite the senses. On the contrary, the picture is filled with silence, peace, and tranquility. Even the light breeze does not disturb this peace. There are no ripples on the water, and neither a leaf nor a blade of grass is stirred. Everything seems to have frozen.
The old pond has not been cleaned for a long time; there is duckweed near the banks and a thick layer of fallen yellow leaves. The shores are covered with foliage: some leaves are illuminated by the autumn’s fading sun, but most of them are in the shadow. They act as background. The artist focused on depicting the water — this very mirror in the center of the canvas.
Kurnakov uses many shades of light and dark blue, lilac and violet to convey the smooth surface of the cold water, which is both deep and transparent. As if in a real mirror, it reflects the trees surrounding the pond, the cold sky, which adds a special blue shade to the water, and the heavy reddish clouds.
A few yellow leaves have fallen on the surface of this mirror and enlivened it a little, without disturbing the general feeling of peace, tranquility and silence. Kurnakov, a poet of the beauty and majesty of nature, always knew how to find magic in simple and ordinary things.
After tedious hard work, Kurnakov often went to Spasskoye to “relax” and brought his sketchbook, brushes, and paints. He wandered for hours, walking tens of kilometers along Turgenev’s hunting trails, looking for an interesting motif or a captivating scene. The artist brought home dozens of sketches, some of which later became serious works.
Kurnakov would frequently paint the pond. It served as the basis for many landscape paintings, including the ones illustrating the Bunin theme.
The canvas features an old pond, lost in the shade of trees, a typical corner of central Russia. The artist depicts a quiet and peaceful picture of Russian nature. The canvas does not impress with vibrant and varied colors, and it does not excite the senses. On the contrary, the picture is filled with silence, peace, and tranquility. Even the light breeze does not disturb this peace. There are no ripples on the water, and neither a leaf nor a blade of grass is stirred. Everything seems to have frozen.
The old pond has not been cleaned for a long time; there is duckweed near the banks and a thick layer of fallen yellow leaves. The shores are covered with foliage: some leaves are illuminated by the autumn’s fading sun, but most of them are in the shadow. They act as background. The artist focused on depicting the water — this very mirror in the center of the canvas.
Kurnakov uses many shades of light and dark blue, lilac and violet to convey the smooth surface of the cold water, which is both deep and transparent. As if in a real mirror, it reflects the trees surrounding the pond, the cold sky, which adds a special blue shade to the water, and the heavy reddish clouds.
A few yellow leaves have fallen on the surface of this mirror and enlivened it a little, without disturbing the general feeling of peace, tranquility and silence. Kurnakov, a poet of the beauty and majesty of nature, always knew how to find magic in simple and ordinary things.
