Description of the painting by Efim Volkov “October”

Description of the painting by Efim Volkov October

Efim Volkov in 1883 painted the picture “October”. The artist worked on the canvas at the Siverskaya station, which is located near St. Petersburg. There the painter had his own dacha, where the famous canvas was created. Then this creation was exhibited at the XI Mobile Exhibition. Making a review of the exhibition, V. Stasov wrote that among the many works of landscape painters, the most remarkable was the painting “October”. He recognized her as one of the best, if not the best, thing of Volkov. So well and clearly he prescribed lean trees, already bare in the fall. He drew attention to the “prospects through the sparse woods,” and the autumn light.

This picture very subtly conveys the lyrics of the fall, in it the close plans with the distant ones are superbly combined into a composition, the main color range is perfectly sustained. In the foreground of the picture is a young birch grove, which was discharged with great care. The artist managed to make expressive both the fragile trunks of birch trees and the brown earth covered with autumn foliage. By conveying the theme of autumn leaf fall, the artist achieves great expressiveness and power. In the depiction of leaves E. Volkov is almost close to plein-air painting: he feels so subtly the poetry of the fading beauty of nature. He depicted the rays of the setting sun falling on the foliage: in their cold light the colorful carpet of leaves seemed to be spread out under the trees.

The winding ribbon of the river reflects the cold gray autumn sky. Only a lonely figure of an old woman carrying a knapsack behind her shoulders can be seen on the path that runs along the riverbank. Autumn in nature is in harmony with the autumn of the life of an elderly woman.


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Description of the painting by Efim Volkov “October”