Lake is a painting by the Russian artist Isaac Levitan (1860–1900), which he worked on in 1899–1900. It is currently held in the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg (Inventory Zh-4262). The painting measures 149 × 208 cm. It is also known by other names, including Lake. Rus and Sunny Day. Lake.
The painting Lake was Levitan's last major work, which he painted shortly before his death. Although unfinished, this canvas is considered the main work of the late Levitan and is often referred to as his 'swan song'. The painting was first exhibited under the title 'Sunny Day' at Levitan's posthumous exhibition held in Saint Petersburg and Moscow in 1901.
The painting Lake is one of the artist's three largest works, along with At the Pool (1892) and Over Eternal Peace (1894), which echoes the latter in subject matter. During the process of creating the painting, Levitan used numerous sketches and studies, including a large sketch, held in the Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum and a small preliminary version of the painting, kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery.
Art historian Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov considered the painting Lake to be 'a remarkable creation by Levitan' and wrote that it 'immediately makes a great and strong impression on the viewer, as a powerful and beautiful image of Russian nature.' According to art historian Mikhail Alpatov, in the painting Lake Levitan managed to give 'a collective image of his homeland' – in it you can see 'the past of Russia, its present, nature, and man', in this work 'both the personal experiences of the artist, and the very festive beauty of the world merged.'
History
Preceding events and work on the painting Levitan was interested in the subject of the lake from the early 1890s. In 1893, he painted a relatively large canvas titled At the Lake (oil on canvas, 109 × 163 cm, Radishchev Art Museum). In 1894, Levitan completed the painting Over Eternal Peace (oil on canvas, 150 × 206 cm, State Tretyakov Gallery), which depicted a wide expanse of water. It is unclear whether it was a lake or a river. The artist worked on this canvas on Lake Udomlya near Vyshny Volochok. The theme of the lake appears in several of the artist's works following his visit to Lake Como in northern Italy. These include Lake Como (oil on canvas, 1895, 96 × 128 cm, State Russian Museum), Gloomy Day (pastel, 1895, 48 × 62 cm, State Russian Museum), and Forest Lake (oil on canvas, 1890s, 48 × 80 cm, Rostov Regional Museum of Fine Arts).
During the summer of 1898, Levitan resided in the Bogorodskoye estate, situated in Klinsky Uyezd, Moscow Governorate, in close proximity to the Podsolnechnaya railway station (now within the city limits of Solnechnogorsk), on the shores of Senezh Lake. The estate was owned by the Olenin family – Vladimir Alexandrovich (great-grandson of Alexey Olenin, State Secretary and President of the Imperial Academy of Arts) and his wife Elizaveta Dmitrievna, née Skaryatina. In a letter to the writer Anton Chekhov dated 23 June 1898,The Julian calendar ("old style") is used to date events that took place in the Russian Empire. Levitan reported: 'I live in a wonderful place here: on the shore of a very high huge lake, with forests all around me, and the lake is teeming with fish...' A similar description can be found in Levitan's letter to the artist Elena Karzinkina, dated 5 July 1898: 'I live in a very nice place: a big lake, mountains, forests, complete silence, even too much (but soon all this will be gone – the owners, the Olenins, will come), but still, it's very nice here.'
In Bogorodskoye, Levitan painted several landscapes, including the painting Lake. Spring (canvas, oil, 1898, 91 × 59 cm, Penza Regional Art Gallery named after K. A. Savitsky). Researchers consider this painting as one of the preparatory works for the future painting Lake. Art historian Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov recognised the complex and synthetic nature of the image presented by Levitan on the canvas Lake, and the composition of the landscape depicted on it. Fedorov-Davydov wrote that this landscape 'appears much more natural' than in the painting Over Eternal Peace. According to him, in the painting Lake, Levitan 'unconsciously reproduced <...> some kind of experienced visual impression', which could be 'the general experience he had at the Senezh Lake in the summer of 1898.'
Levitan began teaching at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (MUZHVZ) in September 1898, where he led the landscape class. According to the memories of one of Levitan's pupils, the artist Boris Lipkin, in early 1899, Levitan assigned his students the task of creating an illustration for Alexander Pushkin's poem 'The Cloud.' In the same year, in preparation for the student exhibition, Levitan showed Lipkin a large sketch made for the painting Lake, noting that it related to the same theme for which he had given the assignment. According to Lipkin's recollections, Levitan told him: 'I've been working on this subject for a long time, I wanted to call this thing 'Rus', but maybe it's a bit pretentious, it's better to keep it simple somehow.' According to literary scholar Andrei Turkov, Levitan's idea may have been connected to his work on illustrating the collection of Pushkin's works. This edition was being prepared by Pyotr Konchalovsky for the 100th anniversary of the poet's birth. Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov disagreed with Lipkin's claim that Levitan's sketch was thematically linked to Pushkin's 'The Cloud'. Fedorov-Davydov argued that 'the image of the painting in no way resembles this poem,' as the artist depicted light clouds rather than a cloud or the state of nature after a thunderstorm. According to Fedorov-Davydov, the landscape was 'least of all illustrative' and 'looked like real nature above all.'
In April 1899, Levitan travelled to the village of Okulovka in Krestetsky Uyezd, Novgorod Governorate. He spent the remainder of spring and most of the summer there, creating paintings such as Twilight. Moon, Twilight. Stacks, Summer Evening, and Twilight. Levitan also worked on preparatory sketches for the future canvas Lake. In August of the same year, the artist returned to Moscow.
In 1889, entrepreneur and patron of the arts Sergei Morozov allocated Levitan a house workshop in Bolshoy Trisvyatitelsky Lane in Moscow, where he worked on the final version of the painting Lake. In early February 1900, the natural scientist Kliment Timiryazev, accompanied by his wife and son, visited the artist's studio. Among the many unfinished paintings, Timiryazev saw a large painting titled Lake. The scientist particularly liked the sketch for this painting, which stood out for its 'rich, iridescent range of colours.' Levitan worked on the canvas Lake until early May 1900. During this time, he visited his landscape class students in Khimki, who worked on a plein-air at a rented cottage. There, Levitan caught a cold which led to a severe complication of heart disease. He returned to Moscow but was unable to recover and died on 22 July (4 August) 1900. Following his death, approximately 40 unfinished paintings (including Lake) and around three hundred sketches were found in his studio.
Posthumous exhibition and subsequent events
The painting Lake, under the title Sunny Day, was first exhibited at Levitan's posthumous exhibition in Saint Petersburg and Moscow in 1901. The exhibition showcased over 140 paintings and numerous sketches, with the first part held in the halls of the Imperial Academy of Arts and the second part in the premises of the Moscow Society of Art Lovers. Directly after the exhibition, the canvas was bought by Adolf (Abel) Levitan (the artist's brother) for the Russian Museum of Emperor Alexander III (now the State Russian Museum). On the reverse of the canvas is a note: 'Levitan No. 27 'Sunny Day' 2200 rubles.' A reproduction of the painting, titled Lake, was published in the magazine "The World of Art" (No. 1 for 1901).
The painting 'Lake' was subsequently exhibited at several exhibitions, including Levitan's personal exhibitions in 1938 at the State Tretyakov Gallery and in 1939 at the State Russian Museum in Leningrad. It was also displayed at the jubilee exhibition commemorating the 100th anniversary of the artist's birth, held in 1960–1961 in Moscow, Leningrad, and Kyiv. However, it was not included in the catalogue and only appeared in the Leningrad section of the exhibition. The painting was exhibited during the 150th anniversary of Levitan's birth at the Benois Building of the State Russian Museum (April–July 2010) and the New Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val (October 2010 – March 2011). An opinion poll of visitors to the exhibition was conducted during the anniversary event. The poll results show that only two paintings from the Russian Museum, Overgrown Pond (7th place) and Lake (10th place), were among the top ten favourite works of the artist. The other eight paintings in the top ten are part of the Tretyakov Gallery's collection.
According to Levitan's contemporaries, ten years after the artist's death, the painting Lake had 'darkened, withered in some places, and lost much of its original luminosity and brightness.' Subsequently, the canvas underwent several restorations, including before Levitan's personal exhibition of 1938 in Moscow and in 1958, when the leading restorer of the State Russian Museum, Anany Brindarov, restored the painting. The painting Lake is currently exhibited in Room 40 of the Rossi wing alongside other works by Isaac Levitan, such as Golden Autumn. Slobodka, Moonlight Night. A Village, and Silence.
Description The composition of the painting Lake consists of three distinct planes. The first plane is shaded and features bulrush and water ripples, with the shadow of a cloud cast upon them. The second plane depicts a sunlit expanse of water in a large lake. Finally, the third and farthest background shows elevated shores with fields, arable land, groves, and villages, including houses and churches. Clouds float in the blue sky and are reflected in the lake water. At the upper edge of the canvas, a large dark cloud joins a large white cloud to its right.
Compared to the original sketch, where the sky was perceived as a background, the final version gives it a more prominent role. Numerous clouds appear to float out from the horizon, as if catching up with each other. This creates a feeling that they are moving towards the viewer and even going beyond the canvas. According to Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov, 'the theme of clouds with their movement, shadows and reflections begins to occupy an essential, if not equal, place in the general structure of the landscape, along with the image of the shores and surface of the lake covered with fields and enlivened by buildings;' this theme is an important part of the landscape image and 'a means of its expressiveness.' The clouds and other objects in the foreground (reeds and reflections in the water), which act as 'frames', are fragmented and cut off by the edge of the canvas: 'This impressionistic technique gives the impression of a continuation of the painting outside the frame.'
Art historians have noted the synthetic nature of the landscape depicted in the painting, which is manifested not only in the fact that it is 'composed' of several nature studies, but also in the 'collective, generalising nature of the image itself, its ideological synthesis,' in the fact that it represents the image of a whole country – which is why Levitan originally wanted to call it 'Rus.' Furthermore, the state of nature has been synthesised to some extent. The yellow hue of the leaves and the withered fields suggest that it is autumn, while the lighting and clouds resemble those of summer. It is possible that the artist intentionally chose a day during the 'Indian summer', a period when 'the solemnity of autumn still retains the charm of summer.'