In the park. Vel place in Normandy, Polenov – description 
- Author: Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov
- Museum: Russian Museum
- Year: 1874
Overview of the painting :
In the park. Vel place in Normandy – Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov. 1874. Oil on canvas. 61 x 46 cm
A wonderful, atmospheric canvas creates a complete sense of presence thanks to the artist’s reception of the image from the bottom point of view. Because of this, tall, slender trees with openwork crowns seem hanging over the audience.
The picture depicts the entrance to the park, obviously, with a rural estate – this is evidenced by characteristic high, stone pillars on which low wooden “farmer” gates are mounted. Right behind them are two horseback horses – snow-white and nesting. They are in saddles, which suggests that the riders got to the closed gate and then went on foot.
A path overgrown with flowering herbs leads to the gate. Most likely, no one lives here, or there are very few people passing through. Nature seems frozen, silence and calm from the canvas in the early morning or the approaching evening. This is understandable for long blue shadows and for a path drowning in lilac fog beyond the gate.
The picture is surprisingly clear, beautiful, perfectly conveying air-saturated space. It has a rich and thin color scheme, harmoniously selected and restrained. Against its background, a white and black horse with glossy sides looks graphical and a little foreign, as if the human invasion broke the harmony and peace of this place.