Description of the picture:
Dusk. Moon – Isaac Ilyich Levitan. 1899. Oil on canvas. Forty nine x sixty one cm.
Canvas «Twilight. The Moon ”is the brightest representative of the“ landscape of mood ”genre created by Isaac Levitan. Such paintings can be read as a kind of autobiography of the artist, since in them is himself: his thoughts, feelings, events.
The author of the picture is already sick, feeling ill. He is recognized by society, fellow workers, but is in a tense, cold relationship with his best friend – writer A.P. Chekhov. His heart aches and he is still young (he is not even 40) Isaac Ilyich, leaning on a stick. That’s why his canvas is melancholy, gloomy and somehow lonely.
The picture is visually divided into two halves – the endless sky with a lonely circle of the moon and the boundless expanse of water reflecting the same sky and the whole moon. No soul, no breath of breeze, only a barely noticeable ripple on the water.
Dyson-orange trees, yellow grass along the shores, dark become tall pine trees are the dissonance of the blue palette. Compositionally, everything is harmoniously and precisely verified. The loaded right side is more than balanced by two lonely, thin, almost bare trees, thereby evenly distributing the viewer’s attention on the canvas. This filigree and subtlety is so characteristic of Levitan.
On the one хэнд, we see the autumn landscape in all its “Levitan” beauty – with a characteristic palette, structure, elements and mood. On the other хэнд, knowing the biography of the author of the picture, you can imagine the work in the form of one of the last chapters of his life. Less than a year will pass and Isaac Levitan will not. What happened in this last chapter – increasing loneliness, emotional anxiety, disappointment …"