Description of the painting by Mikhail Vrubel “Demon Prostrate”

Description of the painting by Mikhail Vrubel Demon Prostrate

The Demon Outcast is a 1901 painting, painted on canvas with oil.

The demon is thrown into the gorge. His hands and body became helpless, his wings spread. Wings demon surrounded, like a fire. They sparkle and shimmer. The thought of the artist was here – it is the eternity and incorruption of the peacock. Not only the beauty of this bird attracted the artist.

The background of the painting is the highlands at sunset. The main character has turned cramped and squeezed. The picture turned out in the style of Vrubel, with the execution of crystal faces. The artist performed such edges due to flat strokes made with a palette knife.

In the work on the canvas, Vrubel added bronze powder to the paint. It made him shine. But over time, this powder darkened, and now the picture does not look like it was then. Then the canvas did not look like the best works of Vrubel. This work lacked shades and saturation, transitions from

one color to another. Because of the technique that Vrubel used in this work, the canvas represents not so much artistic sense. This is a work that embodies the idea of the fall of a man, the burning of his character.

Before this work, before the defeated demon, was strong and sturdy (sitting). But now his hands have become powerless, they are broken. Around the demon dark darkness. The picture is dominated by gold, blue, blue, purple and pink – these are Vrubel’s favorite colors.

Most likely, the idea of the artist was the idea of the impossibility of defeating the demon, of his pride. But the result was a broken and defeated demon, weak in his performance.

Vrubel failed to embody his idea, turned out to be a broken image, weak and insane.

“Demon Prostrate” Vrubel began writing in 1901, at the same time when other demons were in work. Finished work in the same year. In December, this work was exhibited at the exhibition as unfinished. Now the picture is in the State Tretyakov Gallery.


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Description of the painting by Mikhail Vrubel “Demon Prostrate”