Description of the picture:
In the park. The town of Vel in Normandy is Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov. 1874. Oil on canvas. Sixty one x forty six cm
A wonderful, atmospheric canvas creates a full sense of presence thanks to the artist’s use of image reception from a low point of view. Because of this, tall, slender trees with delicate crowns seem to hang over the audience.
The picture shows the entrance to the park, obviously, at a rural estate – this is evidenced by the characteristic high, stone pillars on which the low wooden “farm” gates are attached. Right at them two riding horses are attached – snow-white and bay. They are in the saddles, which indicates that the riders reached the closed gate and then went on foot.
A path overgrown with flowering herbs leads to the gate. Most likely, no one lives here, or there are very few people passing by. Nature seems frozen, from the canvas comes the silence and tranquility of an early morning or an approaching evening. This is understandable by the long blue shadows and the path drowning in the lilac fog behind the gate.
The picture is surprisingly clear, beautiful, perfectly conveying air-saturated space. It has a rich and subtle color scheme, harmoniously selected and restrained. Against this background, a white and black horse with glossy sides looks graphical and a little foreign, as if a human invasion had disturbed the harmony and peace of this place."