The composition of Levitan’s painting “Quiet abode”


One of the most famous works of Isaak Levitan “Quiet abode” was written in 1890 in the genre of “church scenery.”

What could be simpler than this picture? Summer morning. Windless weather, calm, cool river surface smoothly skirting a wooded toe. Through it will be thrown a thin bridge over the perches. Because of the birches of the opposite shore, the dome and the bell tower of a small monastery are aleted in cold, pink rays, in a perfectly bright sky. The motive is poetic, sweet, elegant – it is clear that the artist admires this place of Volga nature. Feels the peace and quiet, spilled in the landscape.

The contrasting colors of the shore and sky are alternating and repeating; as reflected in the water of the church and the clouds – it gives the landscape balance and festive solemnity. The landscape looks fabulously elegant due to its colorful saturation: golden, blue, pink and lilac colors of the sky; greenish-purple forest white and

gold temples.

And in this fabulously beautiful place live ordinary people. Wooden bridges, a trail, monastic buildings, all this was created by people. Mentally we will pass along the overpassed bridges from one bank to another, holding on to the wooden, polished people’s hands, handrails, feeling the slight rocking of the bridge and the creaking of the boards under your feet. The footbridge is old, with patches, not far from the shore close to us, in place of the fallen boards, two horizontal planks are thrown.

On the other side of the river there are steps made with caring hands in the slope and a path tightly packed with a multitude of human legs leading to the Orthodox monastery often visited by pilgrims. The architectural features of the two churches and monastic buildings are organically inscribed in the landscape. The unity of landscape and architecture in the work speaks of the harmony of man and nature.

From the picture like a stream of fresh, fragrant air poured like from the open windows. It seems that these clouds, the forest, the field have seen for a long time and many times, and I want to go and walk along the path, and where the morning dawn, the reflection of something unearthly, eternal is at rest. From what you see creates a blissful mood, sweet peace of mind, which causes this quiet corner of the Russian land, isolated from the whole world.


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The composition of Levitan’s painting “Quiet abode”