Description of the picture:
Bogoroditsky oak – Karl Pavlovich Bryullov. 1835. Oil on canvas. Sixty one x 74
In Bryullov’s painting “At the Bogorodetsky Oak”, it is customary to look for features of another artist’s work – Mikhail Ivanovich Lebedev. The representative of the academic school, Lebedev was able to bring dynamism and movement into his work, subject to all the traditional canons. His favorite subjects were mighty oaks, elms, forest paths. With the work of a young landscape painter, as well as with himself, Bryullov met thanks to his younger brother.
The painting was painted using watercolor. The central place in the work is occupied by the magnificent oak, which is a sacred place where pilgrims make their pilgrimage. And now, a diverse audience gathered around a vast trunk – a decrepit old man, a woman, a girl with an umbrella, who had arrived on a donkey.
Masterfully, the artist conveys the play of light, which is trying to break through the dense crown of trees.
By the way, the society for encouraging artists did not approve of the hobby of the main painter of the empire with watercolors – this saw a break with academicism. Meanwhile, bright, fresh watercolors, such as At the Bogorodetsky Oak, are an integral part of the work of the great Bryullov."