Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov painted portraits, landscapes and genre compositions. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under Vasily Grigoryevich Perov, Illarion Mikhailovich Pryanishnikov and Aleksey Kondratyevich Savrasov. He also went to the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he was mentored by Pavel Petrovich Chistyakov.

Nesterov’s images, including illustrations to works of literature, paintings of cathedrals, paintings on subjects of philosophy and religion, and subtle inspiring landscapes and portraits, reveal the essence of his work, associated with the spiritual and moral quests of the Russian people and the search for the ideal of a life filled with inspiration and harmony.

Nesterov attached paramount importance to the genre of landscape. To him, it was “an embodiment of the poetic notion of Russian nature, its delicate beauty and harmony.” Interestingly, only a small number of Nesterov’s works are purely landscapes, and most of them are preparatory studies for large canvases.

In the early 20th century, Nesterov traveled to the Russian North, where he worked on sketches for the painting “Holy Rus”. The image of northern nature is reflected in a small-format landscape “Afterglow”.

In this study with its muted color palette and calm smooth rhythm, everything is permeated with a sense of eviternity and incredible peace and tranquility. From not too high a point, the artist depicted the outskirts of a northern village with closely arranged wooden houses and the coast, slumbering underneath the snow.

During his life, the artist often traveled abroad but still loved the nature of Central Russia and the Russian North the most.

On the Православие.ру website, Oksana Golovko described this landscape as follows,

Mikhail Nesterov called his art “poeticized realism”. He was on his own artistic path. His sophisticated creative search often did not align with the positions of the newly emerged art associations of the turn of the 20th century.