Okhotin. September. 1915 Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin (1861-1939)

Description of Konstantin Korovin’s painting Okhotino

Vivid colors. Energetic texture of the strokes.

The energy of the strokes creates the effect of the movement of clouds and the rustling of leaves, the texture of the strokes animates the entire landscape - it moves and shimmers with the movement of the viewer’s gaze. The effect is very unusual and delightful.

The village of Okhotino is a special love of the artist, so the painting is saturated with all the enthusiasm and love. The author of the painting admires literally every smallest detail in his native and beloved landscape. According to the evidence of the artist’s contemporaries, paintings of landscapes were born by the artist spontaneously and very easily.

The artist himself described in his autobiography, the ease of birth of his paintings. "Went out. Saw. Took an easel, canvas and paint. He was inspired by the beauty of any insignificant detail. He saw the nuance in the moment and captured it in his masterpieces with great inspiration.

The rustic houses with their pointed roof tops, the vast expanse that goes far beyond the horizon, the moving clouds and rustling leaves are imbued with the artist’s love and admiration. He wanted to leave in the memory of posterity this stunning and admiring beauty of the Russian countryside, beautiful in its simplicity.

The painting tells the viewer that the Russian expanses bring unprecedented energy to their inhabitants, with their sky, their immense dales, and the blue of the sky and rivers. In this picture the artist pays special attention to the sky. The sky here is bright, gorgeous and varied. In this one picture you can see a piece of clear and frequent sky glittering there in the distance over the river and patches of neutral blue and almost a thundercloud in the foreground.

With this image the artist wanted to demonstrate the variability of the weather and at the same time its beauty in all its manifestations. Nature has no bad weather. Looking closely and living in the picture, you can feel the power of expanses that the artist wanted to show. Look at the vastness of the sky.

And the river in the background? Can you feel its powerful murmur of the stream? And the most interesting thing is that the first glance of the viewer in the picture absolutely does not see this powerful stream. And that small area of expanse visible between the houses in front of the river, it is also barely visible, but upon closer examination, it becomes clear that it is a large spacious field, through which the way to the bank of the river runs.

The author apparently meant by this effect that the beauty of the Russian nature is powerful and striking, but you have to see and understand it. Or rather, to understand it you need to listen and see.

In his landscapes the artist depicted the great love of his soul - the RUSSIAN VILLAGE.