This landscape is not considered one of the artist’s most outstanding works, such as “Birch Grove”, “Above Eternal Peace”, “Vladimirka”, “After the Rain. Plyos." For some reason, it was believed that there were no places in Russia worthy of being captured on canvas. The nature is simple, discreet, not at all similar to the bright landscapes of Italy or France. Levitan was not like that. He wasn't looking for any special beauty. He wrote what was close to the heart and soul of a person who grew up in this environment, who loved paths in forests and copses, who more than once walked along log bridges thrown over a stream. So, Levitan, “Forest Lake”. The description of the picture will not convey all the charm of the end of the summer. To feel the peace emanating from her, you need to visit the Rostov Museum of Fine Arts, or at least look at a good reproduction.
Landscape of Levitan
Early quiet autumn. A calm unknown lake in some wilderness.
Not a breeze.
The smooth, unclouded surface of the water, like a mirror, reflects the pale autumn sky and the trees standing in impenetrable thickets along its banks. In the distance, birch trees are gilded with ocher. The invisible sun shines from the right, and lilac-gray shadows fall on the trees. On the left they become lighter. The water reflects both the jagged gold of the forest and the green of pine trunks shimmering under the sunset light. This is how Levitan sees and writes “Forest Lake”. The description of the painting is a pale copy of what the artist conveys.
The sun plays on the pine trunks, and they sparkle festively. The complete peace and tranquility that the landscape evokes in the painter is transmitted to the viewer. An incredible master - Levitan. The forest lake (the description of the picture is good, but it’s better to still see it) goes into an incredible distance, and where it ends and with what - maybe a stream, maybe a river - is unknown.
Peace of mind, undisturbed space - this is what this entire forest landscape breathes. But the most important thing is that he lives his own life, which will remain with the viewer in a corner of his soul when he moves away from the picture. If this happens, it means that the poet and psychologist looked into the soul and left a pure noble trace in it. Levitan probably wrote “Forest Lake” with sadness about the passing summer.
Description of the painting: in the foreground the panoramic composition becomes more complex. A high, crooked cliff appears in contrast to the smooth lines of the entire image. And from the height of the cliff, the artist, and after him the viewer, admires the beauty of the huge lake that suddenly opened before him, stretching into the distance. Isaac Levitan depicts the forest lake as part of an unknown mysterious country, revealed to a tired traveler. The light magically emanates from the center of the composition, illuminating the gentle tones of the forest, merrily running along the trunks of the pine trees.
Levitan is not only a brilliant draftsman, but also a colorist from God. But this could only manifest itself thanks to immensely great work, when, while still studying, he mastered all shades of green, wrote out every leaf, studying its structure, every piece of bark, as can be seen in his sketches. For example, “Trunk of an old tree.”
These sketches speak of the tireless work of such a mature artist as I. I. Levitan. “Forest Lake,” the description of which was given, speaks of the vigilance, attention and firmness of the hand of the young artist.
Forest Lake Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)
My essay on this picture.
The work of the talented Russian artist Isaac Ilyich Levitan is the brightest and unique phenomenon in world painting. In his paintings he sought to reveal the beauty, uniqueness, completeness and boundlessness of his native nature. Levitan's landscapes amaze with their colors, saturation, transparency and beauty.
And one of these works is “Forest Lake”, written in 1890 of the nineteenth century. In it, as in many of Levitan’s works, true love for the native land, for its unique nature, is conveyed. There are many surviving sketches and sketches for this painting.
Looking at the picture, it seems as if the foreground has dissolved. It spread into a deep lake where the reflections of the treetops are visible. And in the middle of the canvas there was a lake, like a huge mirror. The background also attracts attention. You can see how the evening sun painted the thick crowns of tall pines growing on the shore a yellow-golden color. In his work, the author uses a dark color scheme, which gives the composition a charming transparency and bewitching mystery.
On the left on the canvas there is a shore that smoothly turns into green grass, indicating a thin line running between the light sand of the coast and the dark grass a little further. And it seems that the lake is compressed into a ring by the trees surrounding it. And the shore gives the impression of a rocky cliff above the water surface. Tall pines, with a bare trunk and lush green crowns, do not allow light to pass through and cast a bizarre shadow in the slowly fading rays of the setting sun.
The contradictory mood is due to the contrast of colors used by the artist. For a split second it seems that you are standing on the shore and nothing will disturb the secluded corner. But we look to the right at the blue-black trees and a feeling of unconscious anxiety inexplicably rises in our chest. This lonely pine tree growing on the very edge of the shore gives such a feeling of anxiety.
And when you look forward again, at the sun and light, the anxiety subsides and the faith returns that everything will be wonderful.
Thus, the artist wanted to pay all attention to the main subject of the image, the lake. The accuracy of the depiction of the forest lake and the forest growing around it, like the setting of a precious stone, very accurately conveys the author’s love for his native nature and its beauty, as well as the skill of the artist, landscape painter Levitan.
The life of an artist
He was born in 1860 in the Kovno province in Lithuania. When he was ten years old, the family moved to Moscow, where they lived very poorly. But at the age of 13, a child is sent to study painting. The mother dies, then the father. The Jewish boy studied at the Moscow School. Not everyone understood how a Jew, poor and beggarly, sometimes without a piece of bread or a roof over his head, could enthusiastically study the Russian landscape. What can he understand about it? However, it is Levitan who will reveal the charm of Russian nature to the whole world. When a young talent graduates from college, he is not even awarded a silver medal, but is only allowed to work as a penmanship teacher.
After college
But it didn’t bend or break him. Friendship with Chekhov’s family played a great influence, where he was treated kindly and participated in pranks and jokes, which Anton Pavlovich was a great master at. His personal life did not work out, despite his undeniable beauty both in his youth and in his mature years.
The only close soul was Chekhov's sister, Maria, with whom he corresponded. It is to her that he confides his fear of death in letters. Levitan caught a cold while sketching on the Volga and fell ill with consumption. He had to go to Crimea for treatment, but by 1900 he returned to Moscow. There he died and was buried in a small Jewish cemetery. Later his grave was moved. M.V. Nesterov, who loved and appreciated him, even during the Great Patriotic War, being a very old and weak man, visited Levitan’s grave with flowers.
How to write an essay based on Levitan's painting
First of all, you need to find out when I.I. was born and worked. Levitan, where he studied and which of our artists were friends with, find out which of his works are considered the most outstanding, for example, “Birch Grove”. What other works did the artist paint? Where did Levitan find the forest lake? A description of a painting for children must necessarily contain their own impressions of contemplating the landscape. Use epithets and definitions, conveying in words the palette of this landscape. Try to understand what mood the artist was in this deserted and deserted corner. Why did he like it? Tune in to this mood of the painter and try to express your impressions in the most accurate words. It might be something like this. I. I. Levitan was born in Lithuania, but lived his life in Russia, became close to it, felt its soul and managed to do what no Russian artist had managed before him.
Description of the painting Forest Lake
Levitan's reproduction of “Forest Lake” was thought out by the artist carefully and thoroughly. He tried a combination of different shades. I mixed different paints and applied them to the canvas. On one canvas there is an alternation of cold tones. And at the end there are pictures of bright autumn warm tones.
The surface of the lake is visible in the picture, and coniferous trees, the blue of the light sky, and the golden attire of the distant forest are reflected on it.
The artist liked the mirror surface, surrounded by banks with a coniferous forest (on the left) and an area of dark bushes (in the foreground), orange trees with greenish tops (leading far into the distance).
We see the artist’s great love for his native land. Careful observation of changes in nature. Autumn landscapes are amazing in their beauty.
Areas of untouched wild beauty amaze with their richness of colorful designs and unique changes in vegetation, shape of objects, combination of air layers, trees, ravines, and soil characteristics.
A large amount of water has a beneficial effect on the growth of wild plants. Pines grow evenly, they have enough sunlight and moisture.
You must love your native land, the place where you were born, and be an attentive, observant person. Only a person with a sensitive, tender heart, a patriot of his Motherland, could complete such work.
When looking at the painting, I remember the sounds of Vivaldi from the “Seasons” series. And once again I admire the richness and colorful richness of our native nature.
I liked this picture. I also really like to walk through the forest and approach the surface of the water. I would really like to find such a corner and reflect on the beauty of natural spaces. Remember poems about autumn days. Walk along the bushes, find pine cones, various natural materials for crafts and ikebana. Collect a small bouquet of bright branches and dry it to remember the beautiful autumn months and passing summer days.
I noticed that the artist really likes to depict areas of the lake covered in trees. Especially at the end of his creative career. This is exactly the trace the artist left for his descendants, using gray, cold tones. He felt depressed about the passing years, but the trees ahead were always a bright spot, instilling hope for the future.
Description for 3rd grade
Levitan's painting
The painting “Forest Lake” depicts a quiet, deserted corner of autumn nature. In the distance, birch and aspen trees form a dense wall of gold; closer to the viewer, the trunks of pine trees glisten with sunlight. The quiet surface of the magnificent lake mirrors the cloudless sky. The viewer is in the shadows, on a cliff, from where he admires the huge lake that suddenly opens up in front of him. Not a sound anywhere. There is a ringing silence that you cannot hear anywhere else. These are protected, infinitely beautiful places with iridescent bluish shadows. The artist shows this corner of the Fatherland to his viewers.
Description of the artwork “Forest Lake”
The artist’s work in question is not his most outstanding work, but it has incredible artistic value, expressed in the extraordinary talent of the painter who depicted a wonderful landscape on the canvas.
The painting is done by the artist in oil on a small canvas, the original of which is kept among the exhibits of the regional museum of fine arts in Rostov. The artist performs a duplicate work painted on a small piece of wood, which is currently in a private collection.
The painting depicts a quiet autumn day, in which a clear, forest lake is reflected in the form of a smooth, unclouded surface. The rays of the invisible sun, shining from the pale autumn sky, outline the shadow of lilac-gray trees and the green of pine trunks. The simple plot of the picture conveys all the charm of the passing summer, forcing the viewer to experience spiritual peace and tranquility.
The artist recreates a picture of ringing forest silence, which describes one of the quiet, deserted natural corners of the passing summer. The calm, even surface of the water symbolizes hope for the revival of an elusive life episode, a source of vitality. The pine forest depicted by the painter also appears as a symbol of renewal, differing from the usual understanding of a dark forest in the transparency of its colors, allowing clean, luminous air to pass between the tree trunks.
The painter uses in his work the technique of a panoramic composition with a contrasting image of the smooth lines of the drawing, using color transitions and bright, clean, rich colors.
The key basis of the painting, which gives it integrity and artistic expressiveness, is the image of the lake’s water surface, which under the artist’s brush creates a feeling of incredible measured distance, reflecting in its depth the sunset rays playing between the leaves of the trees.
Having left this work as a legacy to his descendants, the artist reveals to his viewer an indescribable feeling of the charm of the Russian landscape, demonstrating all the beauty and uniqueness of pure nature, devoid of falsehood and lies.
