Isaac Levitan, Omsk Vrubel Museum
My mother was an art teacher and a very credible artist herself and enjoyed portraits and this sheep. Art also became a little bit of a passion for myself, and I learned to copy famous artists and then started doing original works of art. My father's portrait is my best. I painted both my parents without using photographs. It took about 16 sittings to complete their portraits. By not using photographs to 'cheat,' the figures look much more realistic, as if they could step out of the picture frame, and my father's eyes follow you around the room. My painting of the San Antonio Riverwalk is nice but painted from a photograph. A photograph saps the 3D aspect out of a painting and makes it less fresh and real. That said, I constantly turn to art themes, and Omsk has the largest art collection in Siberia, so I don't lack opportunities to view some of the world's best art. Kandinsky, Repin, Vrubel, and Shishkin are just a few. Today, we'll look at the famous Russian painter Levitan, perhaps the best landscape painter in the world. He himself said, while in Italy, that only in Russia could you find a landscape worth painting. But he himself was a Lithuanian Jew who moved to Moscow. This is no surprise, as the Russian Empire absorbed a wide variety of cultures, and by tradition, the ruler of the Empire came from Rurik and was ruled by the Romanovs, who had very little Russian blood. But these foreigners, and myself, have something in common with a devout love for Russia. Levitan shared this and communicated this with his art in an age where the aristocrats and well-to-do all wanted Italian themes created in an art room or an allegorically themed painting. The Omsk Vrubel museum has some beautiful examples of Italian art, but I would argue as well that it can't compare with Russia. Look at the view of Switzerland and compare it with Levitan's simple landscape.The view of the wooden buildings and sunset is a perfect example of his work. The paint tones are very similar in the bottom and right side, browns, greys, and greens, mixed as almost to be indistinguishable. But the sky! The sky delights as if creation is dancing around the viewer and uniting the world in meaning.The summer field of beehives is also a delight. The greens are fresh and simple. This is not Shishkin's work with every leaf painted, but you wouldn't know you are not seeing great detail in Levitan's trees, simply by the way he lights up and shadows his greens.His white lilacs are perhaps the best flower pictures in the museum. Compare them with the Italian flowers in the still life and Vrubel's. Levitan wanted to paint so that you could smell the flowers by looking at the painting. Few know how difficult it is to paint lilacs. Try it! My wife and I did a copy of lilacs in a jar from a famous painting and really struggled with it. Trying to paint thousands of petals becomes impossible, but here Levitan makes it look possible.Other superb pictures include a fire on a shore and a house in the woods. So simple and beautiful.So, where do we go with landscape painting? Levitan used realism, but he touched up his paintings and added to them when he thought it was necessary. We're not looking at a picture, but the artist's representation.The Vrubel also has an outstanding collection of modern and abstract art and a collection of old icons. Orthodox icons, in fact, were way ahead of the art movement. Icons are abstract and symbolic, but they speak to you and interact with the viewer in a spiritual way. The Russians during Peter the Great wanted to imitate the Western style, and this is where changes in taste started. St. Petersburg was decorated out in this western style indeed. Most of it is splendid, if a bit tasteless. The Catherine Palace, with gold Renaissance carving everywhere, is a bit too much, although it is stunning. No wonder Nicholas II and Alexandra chose the Alexander Palace with its sleek classic look!After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians had for many years also tried to prefer anything and everything Western as superior in some way, but this is false. A dacha garden with the apple trees in blossom on a sunny Omsk June day with the barbecue and banya going can't be beat, even if it is a bit sloppy and muddy, just as a Levitan painting.
My mother was an art teacher and a very credible artist herself and enjoyed portraits and this sheep. Art also became a little bit of a passion for myself, and I learned to copy famous artists and then started doing original works of art. My father's portrait is my best. I painted both my parents without using photographs. It took about 16 sittings to complete their portraits. By not using photographs to 'cheat,' the figures look much more realistic, as if they could step out of the picture frame, and my father's eyes follow you around the room. My painting of the San Antonio Riverwalk is nice but painted from a photograph. A photograph saps the 3D aspect out of a painting and makes it less fresh and real. That said, I constantly turn to art themes, and Omsk has the largest art collection in Siberia, so I don't lack opportunities to view some of the world's best art. Kandinsky, Repin, Vrubel, and Shishkin are just a few. Today, we'll look at the famous Russian painter Levitan, perhaps the best landscape painter in the world. He himself said, while in Italy, that only in Russia could you find a landscape worth painting. But he himself was a Lithuanian Jew who moved to Moscow. This is no surprise, as the Russian Empire absorbed a wide variety of cultures, and by tradition, the ruler of the Empire came from Rurik and was ruled by the Romanovs, who had very little Russian blood. But these foreigners, and myself, have something in common with a devout love for Russia. Levitan shared this and communicated this with his art in an age where the aristocrats and well-to-do all wanted Italian themes created in an art room or an allegorically themed painting. The Omsk Vrubel museum has some beautiful examples of Italian art, but I would argue as well that it can't compare with Russia. Look at the view of Switzerland and compare it with Levitan's simple landscape.The view of the wooden buildings and sunset is a perfect example of his work. The paint tones are very similar in the bottom and right side, browns, greys, and greens, mixed as almost to be indistinguishable. But the sky! The sky delights as if creation is dancing around the viewer and uniting the world in meaning.The summer field of beehives is also a delight. The greens are fresh and simple. This is not Shishkin's work with every leaf painted, but you wouldn't know you are not seeing great detail in Levitan's trees, simply by the way he lights up and shadows his greens.His white lilacs are perhaps the best flower pictures in the museum. Compare them with the Italian flowers in the still life and Vrubel's. Levitan wanted to paint so that you could smell the flowers by looking at the painting. Few know how difficult it is to paint lilacs. Try it! My wife and I did a copy of lilacs in a jar from a famous painting and really struggled with it. Trying to paint thousands of petals becomes impossible, but here Levitan makes it look possible.Other superb pictures include a fire on a shore and a house in the woods. So simple and beautiful.So, where do we go with landscape painting? Levitan used realism, but he touched up his paintings and added to them when he thought it was necessary. We're not looking at a picture, but the artist's representation.The Vrubel also has an outstanding collection of modern and abstract art and a collection of old icons. Orthodox icons, in fact, were way ahead of the art movement. Icons are abstract and symbolic, but they speak to you and interact with the viewer in a spiritual way. The Russians during Peter the Great wanted to imitate the Western style, and this is where changes in taste started. St. Petersburg was decorated out in this western style indeed. Most of it is splendid, if a bit tasteless. The Catherine Palace, with gold Renaissance carving everywhere, is a bit too much, although it is stunning. No wonder Nicholas II and Alexandra chose the Alexander Palace with its sleek classic look!After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians had for many years also tried to prefer anything and everything Western as superior in some way, but this is false. A dacha garden with the apple trees in blossom on a sunny Omsk June day with the barbecue and banya going can't be beat, even if it is a bit sloppy and muddy, just as a Levitan painting.