Alps. 1897 Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s painting The Alps

Levitan has been called a "mood painter," and it is in this role that he is famous. He praised Russian nature and nature in general, always favored landscapes and was in fact in love with the world around him, as can be seen in all his works.

Among them are depictions of forests and fields, villages and rivers, and in the vast majority of paintings there is no man, as something that does not fit in with nature. Levitan did not give the man a defining value - the maximum that was human in his paintings was the mood invested in them. He could depict the joy and hope for the best, could - sadness and melancholy. He could describe with a brush the heartfelt yearning of love, or the expectation or fear.

"The Alps" in his portrayal is coldness and aloofness. The painting is in dark colors, only the sky and fog are bright. It is clearly divided within itself into several levels - the land, green and overgrown with low grass, a strip of fog that curls into fantasy stripes and swirls, then a low mountain range, low enough to pass for hills, tall purple mountains visible in the distance and above it all a high white sky.

No involvement, no interest is felt behind the mountains. They just exist and look at the world aloof and cold. All the hues in the painting are cold. Even the green, which can be more than a warm hue, is cold here, let alone the icy white of the fog, the purple twilight of the distant ridge, the sky. Looking at the picture creates a sense of mystery, as if looking into a secret corner where man should not go. There are avalanches and wild animals, there is ice and cold, you can’t walk even a few miles without a guide.

Such can be the human soul - frozen ice, where it is better not to go without an invitation and where it is impossible to pass without a clue.