Winter. 1873 Alexey Kondratievich Savrasov (1830-1897)

Description of Alexei Savrasov’s painting Winter

Winter landscapes occupy a special place in Savrasov’s work. Winter in the artist’s paintings is real, Russian and truthful to the extent that looking at the paintings, it seems you breathe out the frosty air.

In general, Savrasov is considered one of the founders of the Russian, or rather Russian romantic landscape, which is certainly confirmed by the works of the artist.

The painting Winter stands out as among the winter landscapes, as well as among the landscapes of romantic orientation.

There is lots and lots of snow in the painting. It is everywhere, and when viewing the work for a long time, it hurts the eyes as much as it does the nature of winter.

The trees are in a "silver" captivity and all around is a chilling silence, the silence of frost. Everything seems to be frozen in winter silence, which you want to enjoy, not noticing that it is just an illusion, which occurs due to the skill of the artist.

The sky in the picture is winter, and together with the nature of the stove smoke, which rolls from the chimney of the house, does not promise improvement in the weather.

Thanks to Savrasov’s skill in drawing, "Winter" is clearly highlighted in detail, which when viewing the work creates a sense of volume.

In the painting, the sagging cottage (a painting without artificially reproduced perfect elements) is natural and characteristic of the artist’s period of work. Thanks to this naturalness, which successfully blends it into the overall background of the painting, the house seems to give off coziness and warmth. Again, thanks to the clear contours of the roof of the cabin and the wicker fence, it creates a sense of personal presence.

Generally speaking, such detailing required a lot of work. But the detail is achieved not only by diligence, but also by the author’s understanding of the essence of color. Regarding the colors, it should be noted that the painting has a very successful color harmony. The effect of the detailed drawing together with the successful combination of colors made the picture one of the samples of the winter landscape in Russian painting.