Spring. White Lilac. 1890 Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s painting "Spring. White Lilacs."

Another work by the outstanding Russian landscape painter, Isaac Levitan, from a series of sketches done in pastel technique. Pastel, as you know, is a very soft and crumbly material, through which you can create airy, vague and delicate works, and without going into detail, convey much.

The painting White Lilac is one of a series of many sketches by the artist, showing us his magnificent talent for rapid and amazing sketches. It depicts a gentle staircase leading to the terrace of a certain manor house.

Lush bushes of blossoming snow-white lilacs spread out on both sides of the pathway as if inviting us into the house. In the mysterious evening light of dusk the clusters seem heavenly blue, their whiteness so bright, they seem to shine, absorbing the radiance of the outgoing May day. The smooth, delicate, almost transparent shadows add a special mystery.

The house has not yet been lit - it is not yet dark enough to sit with a light, but it is not so bright as to sit without one. We see in the black windows the reflection of the sky still burning with gray paint, the fading sky. It’s getting damp, there’s a chill in the air. The air cools, the dew appears. Mist begins to billow over the grass (the blue spot to the lower left of the painting, behind the lilacs), and the colors begin to thicken.

One can’t help but notice how subtly the artist was able to depict the evening air, how accurately he conveys the state of twilight. To portray twilight is quite difficult, because the artist, when painting the work himself, suffers from the lack of light and the colors can let him down and deceive; besides, twilight lasts for minutes, it gets dark very quickly. So it is safe to say that this sketch was done quickly, no more than a quarter of an hour!