Overview of the painting “Mart”, Levitan, 1895 
- Posted by Isaac Ilyich Levitan
- Museum: Tretyakov Gallery
- Year: 1895
Overview of the painting :
March – Levitan. 1895. Oil on canvas. 60×75
The great Russian landscape painter did not like winter. Like every artist of the late 19th century, he wrote with great pleasure the transitional times of the year – spring and autumn. It is at this time that Russian nature explodes with a riot of colors and thousands of all kinds of combinations of shades and halftones. Hardly the only exception is this work. True, in the full sense, this landscape cannot be called “winter”, everything around portends an early spring.
The Tver province is the master’s favorite place of work. Here, the audience is presented with the “backyard” of a suburban estate. Having stopped his cart, harnessed by a thin horse, the peasant went to discuss the upcoming working season with the barin. And the old horse, delighted with the first timid solar heat, stands motionless, afraid to frighten off this rare moment of rest.
Spring in the picture practically did not enter the rights. Heavy and only slightly melted snow lies in a thick carpet. Only the snow cap on the roof of the rear porch is ready to fall and crumble. If young beasts are illuminated by the bright sun, then gloomy pine trees remain in the shade, as if not wanting to yield so soon to the upcoming heat.
But spring can not be hidden. It is given by an impeccably clear sky, blue shadows on the snow, a birdhouse on top of birch is ready to accept a cheerful and noisy bird family.
The roads have almost got rid of the snow. The hoarse color of the treadmill also creates a completely spring and raised mood, and the wall of the wooden manor house flooded with the sun seems to eagerly absorb heat, yearning for the world for a long winter. The track of tracks running into the forest resembles a fairy tale of a snow-cracker that was hiding from the formidable Jaril-Solnts.
All work is permeated with an atmosphere of impatient expectation of prosperity and flowering. Awakening, spring slowly but surely transforms everything around.
It is known that the great landscape painter wrote this work unusually quickly, in just a few sessions. The author is trying with all his might to bring the onset of heat closer and the time of flowering.
The combination of green, blue and white colors created a unique and joyful color of work. Nobody wrote to the master in this way in winter. Therefore, this work has become a source of inspiration for a whole generation of Russian artists. The author managed to see summer joy, beauty and fun in the usual March landscape. There is some unfinishedness in everything, understatement. The rapid changes in nature, the impending heat create the illusion of movement in the picture, so masterfully transmitted by the artist.