“Evening” by Alexey Kondratyevich Savrasov is rightfully considered one of the gems of the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts.

In the late 1870s — early 1880s, Alexey Savrasov repeatedly turned to this picturesque composition, conveying the wistful sadness of an autumn evening. The artist painted his first “Evening” in 1877. Nowadays, the first painting of the series is displayed at the National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus. For a long time, this large canvas of almost 1.5 by 1 meters remained unknown. It has the same composition as the eponymous painting from the Nizhny Tagil Museum. In the foreground, there is a cold body of water — a large puddle in the earlier painting and a shallow river in the later one. Apparently, the artist was attracted by the simplistic nature of this scene which allowed him to convey a heartwarming atmosphere and deep feelings.

Alexey Savrasov had both a fruitful and tragic life. On the one hand, he achieved success early on and was happy during the beginning and heyday of his creative career. On the other hand, at the end of his life, he felt that things had not worked out the way he had hoped they would. Alexey Savrasov was born into a merchant family and became fascinated with painting when he was still a child. At the age of 14, Savrasov enrolled at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture even though his father was against it. At the age of 21, the young artist painted his first masterpiece — “View of the Kremlin from the Krymsky Bridge in Inclement Weather” — which at once earned him recognition and the favor of Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna. Three years later, Alexey Savrasov became a member of the Academy of Arts, and his paintings were purchased by Pavel Tretyakov.

Savrasov painted with all his heart, and his landscapes were imbued with love, poignance, and fascination with Russian nature. He created the new genre of the mood landscape in Russian art. In 1871, Savrasov co-founded the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions and presented his famous painting “The Rooks Have Returned” at the first exhibition of “the Wanderers”.

The last two decades of Alexey Savrasov’s life were filled with hardship: two of his daughters died, he had family problems and lived in poverty. All of this drove him to alcoholism — an addiction that destroyed him from within and burned his soul. During that tumultuous late period of his creative career, the painter’s immense talent was the only thing that kept him afloat. He continued to paint true masterpieces.