The Twilight Moon Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900)

Description of Isaac Levitan’s painting "Twilight. Moon."

The painting "Twilight. The Moon" is a painting of that period in the work of Isaac Levitan, when his paintings depended entirely on the mood and emotions prevailing in the author’s soul. In Mood Landscape all the last years of the artist’s life melancholic and gloomy tones prevailed, reflecting all the sorrows and frustrations of a lonely soul.

Autumn Evening. Most of the landscape is occupied by a pale blue sky with gray clouds, which seems even somewhat brighter in the reflection of the calm, motionless surface of the river. The moon, ruler of the night, has already appeared in the bright sky, not waiting for her nighttime companion stars. Even her reflection in the river is blurred and shaky, as if in doubt: "isn’t it too early?" And the middle of the picture horizontally filled with the main attributes of the autumn landscape - yellowed and darkened trees.

The dim sun, not yet hidden behind the horizon, illuminates these golden, red and dark green crowns, giving the picture a share of light joy. Everything in the picture is still, only a slight ripple can be seen in the river, in which the forest is reflected differently from the moon. It blends into one thick palette of yellow and orange and quietly awaits the coming of night. Only two fully yellowed trees stand alone, separated from the dense grove: one almost at the shore and the other closer to the forest in the distance.

What mood does the picture evoke? It’s hard to decide without looking at it in detail. You can’t say that autumn melancholy fills this canvas entirely, but there is something in it that causes a little heaviness in the soul. And it’s not the gloomy sky, or the fading sun, or the trees losing their leaves, but some special mood that is conveyed from the painting. Thus, without resorting to exaggerating the sadness of the autumn landscape, Levitan has ensured that the mood that arises at this time of year at least once in everyone is fully reproduced in this painting.