Walk. 1849 Karl Pavlovich Bryullov (1799-1852)

Description of Karl Bryullov’s painting A Walk

The watercolor was created in 1849.

We see a group of people taking a walk in Madeira. The artist concentrated all his attention on the unusual shape of the carriage. There are oxen harnessed to the carriage. Ladies and two gentlemen are comfortably seated in such an exotic carriage. The men are specially highlighted to emphasize their special position. Only after that does the viewer’s eye move on to those riders who are the attendants of this magnificent carriage.

The painter used incredibly bright colors in his watercolor. The entire landscape is as if filled with sunshine from within. We feel it not only in every blade of grass and leaves, but also in the central characters of this magnificent creation. Each figure is painted with extraordinary skill.

We feel the special movement, which is conveyed by the position and turn of the heads of all the people. The graceful horses and strong oxen are drawn very realistically and unusually vividly. They are so real that it seems that we can hear the clatter of hooves and the creak of wheels.

On the one hand, the plot is very exotic. But at the same time, it is as simple and ordinary as possible. The artist makes the viewer feel that there is nothing special here. This kind of walk was the usual entertainment of the rich people in the Madera. Bryullov simply saw one such scene and captured it in his watercolor, skillfully combining it with a masterfully painted landscape.

The realistic and at the same time quite exotic subject of this creation is so realistic that we do not feel that someone specifically posed in front of the artist. This life picture, captured as realistically as possible creates an incredibly sunny, full of joie de vivre mood. The abundance of light and the colorful composition, painted to the smallest detail, speak of the extraordinary skill of the artist, for whom all the details are meaningful.