The painting - the painting by Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar "February Azure", written in 1904, has a special poetry. February is a month of struggle between winter, which does not want to give up its rights and just a presentiment of the approach of spring, its light breath. A long wait for the awakening of all nature after a quiet winter sleep.
Winter does not give up its positions, it frightens with frost and snow blizzards. But even in February there is sunny weather, when you immediately pay attention to nature, which is always amazingly beautiful. It's just that in our bustling world, we sometimes do not find time to pay attention and look around. Grabar, as a true artist, could not remain indifferent to such beauty and gave us this magnificent landscape.
In the foreground of the painting, there is a birch tree covered with the thinnest layer of lace frost, shimmering and sparkling even under the dim rays of the sun. A little further away are visible birches that are younger and still quite "teenagers" with thin trunks. It seems that having spread their branches, they slowly circle in a smooth round dance, like young girls, celebrating Maslenitsa and meeting the arrival of spring. Only the forest in the background separates heaven and earth. If you stand a little by this picture, it will suddenly seem that you clearly hear a Russian folk song about a birch tree. After all, birch is a symbol of Russia, its beauty, so the people composed many songs about it, both funny and sad.
White-barrel beauties are depicted against the background of an azure snow blanket and almost the same color of the winter sky. These tones, which the painter uses so generously, bring coolness and purity, like a breath of breeze and the smells of the still approaching inaudible light step of spring.
Such shades of azure, turquoise, blue, as a gift from our Russian nature in the most blizzard winter month in the vastness of Russia. The whole canvas creates the feeling of an impending holiday,
The painting February Azure also liked Igor Emmanuilovich. He often talked about how suddenly amazing inspiration came to create her. Grabar saw such a landscape in the suburbs of Moscow on a frosty sunny morning, going out for a walk. He was struck by the color of azure, which seemed to envelop everything around him, and only birches stretching out their branches, as if in a dance, diluted these incredible colors of pearls, coral, sapphire and turquoise. All together it looked like a fabulous island in the shine of precious stones.
The artist was amazed at the fantastic beauty of the birch branches in this chime of all shades of the rainbow, against the background of the blue sky. Against the background of the turquoise sky, last year's foliage, which has survived at the very top of the birch, seems golden. As if fulfilling the wishes of the painter, sunny days stood for almost two weeks, allowing Grabar to capture this miracle. It seemed that nature posed for a talented artist, showing her grace in a winter dress. Fuzzy lines produce the effect of filling the picture with light and air.
The artist uses very light pure shades, due to which a crystal chime of blue is obtained - from delicate turquoise to sparkling ultramarine. The canvas resembles the paintings of famous French impressionists.
Today Grabar's painting "February Azure" is in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Canvas size 141 by 83 cm
A student of Repin, an outstanding artist and indefatigable cultural figure Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar, during his long career, created many masterpieces of painting. The main genres in which the artist worked are portrait and landscape. Almost all of the landscapes painted by Grabar glorify the beauty of the Russian land. One of his most famous works is the painting "February Azure", painted in 1904.
Author biography
Before studying at the Imperial Academy of Arts, I.E. Grabar successfully received his legal and philological education at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1894, Grabar began to study painting at a higher school at the Academy of Arts, where IE Repin himself was his direct mentor. Grabar continued to study painting until 1901. He spent several years abroad, in Munich and Paris.
Over his long 90 years of life, Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar influenced the development of Russian painting and culture, not only creating many but also being an active figure in various art associations, as well as the creator of restoration workshops, trustee and director of the Tretyakov Gallery.
Famous works
The most widely known works of the artist are exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery, among them the painting "February azure", as well as the canvases "March snow", "Uncleaned Table" and "Chrysanthemums". All of the above works were written in the 1900s. - the period recognized as the most inspirational and productive in the artistic career of I.E. Grabar.
Many of the artist's early works are characterized by the realism inherent in the Academic School, however, throughout his studies and further career, Grabar chose the most suitable artistic method for himself - divisionism. All the completed works of the artist were written in this style.
Divisionism in painting
Divisionism is an offshoot of the painting method called pointillism, which is based on the manner of writing or drawing with dots. Points can be isolated from each other and non-isolated.
Divisionism has become a style of its own thanks to its sophisticated, almost mathematical approach to image creation. A special characteristic of the style is the almost one hundred percent rejection of. Divisionism is based on dividing a complex color or shade into a number of "pure colors" and applying them to the canvas with strokes of the correct shape (not necessarily dots). The strokes are applied with the exact expectation that as a result, the viewer will see exactly the shade that was originally divided into the spectrum of its constituent colors.
The history of the creation of "February azure"
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar is one of those artists who are not afraid to leave the beaten path and strive to paint the familiar with new colors.
Even during his studies, Grabar showed interest in especially those that reveal to the viewer the simple charm of the Russian winter. Snow allows you to make the most of the visual advantage of Divisionism techniques.
Painting (Grabar) "February Azure" was inspired by the moment. Walking around the winter suburbs of Moscow, Grabar looked at a beautiful, tall birch, with incredibly slender, almost symmetrical branches. The author raised his head and saw a cascade of colors and shades above him - the magic of nature created by birch branches, sky blue and many incredible, some non-winter shades. This sight impressed the artist so much that his most famous painting was painted under the influence of a moment.
Painting "February Azure": description and analysis
Both the author of the picture and many critics see something fantastic, fabulous in a simple, unpretentious image. The birch, like a magic bird, spread its rich wings over the vastness of the heavenly blue. Bright blotches of green, brown and create the feeling of approaching spring - it is not here yet, but as if it is about to come out of the corner.
Why the painting is called "February Azure", and not otherwise, is explained by the technique of execution. In divisionism, artists try not to mix colors, and the necessary shades are created in the process of strategically calculated combination of strokes made with "pure" colors. In "February azure" there is a heavenly blue, against which iridescent birches shine - the same azure.
A distinctive feature of the artist I.E. Grabar was the ability to transform ordinary landscapes, things and images familiar to a Russian person into magical paintings and fabulous canvases filled with color, air and deep, quivering love for their native land. The painting (Grabar) "February Azure" is a vivid confirmation of this.
11 June 2015They say that a landscape is a portrait of nature. And for a good artist, he is filled with dynamism, a kind of mystery that is revealed to the viewer only on an intuitive-sensual level. He observes an ordinary, even unremarkable sketch of nature - a lonely tree, a restless sea or a mountainous area - and nevertheless does not cease to admire the unusual angle of the depicted, photographically accurately noticed mood, impressionistic play with flowers. All these features can be characterized by the canvases of Igor Grabar. Let's try to give a description of the painting "February Azure".
History of creation
As a rule, evidence of the history of the creation of a particular work of art is extremely short-lived. Some time passes - and the artist himself does not remember exactly when he was visited by the idea to capture something on paper. Fortunately, the history of the painting "February Azure" has not sunk into oblivion. It is known that the painting was created when Grabar was staying in Dugino with the hospitable philanthropist Nikolai Meshcherin. The Dugin period is considered perhaps the most fruitful in the artist's work, the paintings painted over 13 years were gladly accepted by museums and exhibitions.
One fine February morning, the artist simply decided to take a walk - without paints and easel. One of the birches seemed to Grabar especially beautiful, he looked at it and ... dropped the stick. And picking it up, he looked up at the tree. The effect was simply extraordinary! The artist rushed for accessories and sketched what he saw, in order to start creating a full-fledged picture in a few days. To do this, Grabar dug a trench in the snow, covered the canvas with an umbrella, which enhanced the effect of the presence of blue, and began to create. He worked for about two weeks, and all this time nature indulged the artist with beautiful weather.
Image subject
We will start the description of the painting "February Azure" with the main thing - birches in the foreground. The tree is wrapped in the finest winter lace that can sparkle merrily even on a cloudy day. A little further, smaller girlfriends of the white-trunk queen, small birches are visible. So a comparison comes to mind with the girls who are circling in a round dance, calling for spring and seeing off February. It seems, stand still a little more next to the canvas - and you will hear a song about the symbol of our country, a birch.
The tree is depicted against the background of a snow-white blanket and a piercing blue sky. That is why its branches, which give the birch an interesting, even somewhat strange shape, look mysterious, fabulous, bewitched. It’s like a white-trunked beauty has just woken up and reaches for the sky to greet spring, which makes it seem that the birch tree has turned its hips on its hips.
Color solution
We continue the essay "Description of the painting" February azure "". It would seem that the image of the winter month requires the use of white paint. However, Grabar acted differently. On the canvas, the viewer can clearly see that the snow is no longer very clean, in some places there are thawed patches, which means that spring is approaching. At the same time, the artist makes generous use of pastel and bright colors. It is believed that in the canvas he reached the limit of color saturation, painting, in fact, with pure light. We will see many shades of blue, ultramarine. All of them merge into the unique music of painting, the main purpose of which is to convey another moment from the life of nature, sometimes invisible to the common man. With a similar installation, the canvas created by Grabar - "Azure Azure" - approaches the masterpieces of French impressionists, such as "Poppies" by Claude Monet.
Dominant mood
The main message of the canvas can be described as expectation. The winter cold will surely be replaced by warm weather, the depicted birch tree will dress in a beautiful outfit of green leaves, and nature will begin a new round of its development. This explains the extraordinary, optimistic emotional background of the canvas. This description of the painting "February Azure" must be taken into account.
Other facts
For Grabar, the glory of the representative of the winter season was fixed. There is even an interesting parallel between the mentioned Dugin period and the Boldinskaya autumn of Pushkin as one of the most fruitful periods of the poet's work. However, Grabar - "February Azure" and other "winter" canvases do not count! - captured other seasons, as well as the faces of people. Throughout his life, the artist has worked very fruitfully: not every painter can create almost without stopping for about 60 years!
Initially, the artist called the canvas of interest to us "Blue Winter" - an analogy with other canvases by Grabar - but when he gave his brainchild to the Tretyakov Gallery, he renamed it. The masterpiece is there to this day. Visitors gaze at the canvas, with amazement they discover something that even the most skillful reproductions are unable to convey: strokes, individual points from which the canvas is composed. This is also a trace of one of the art currents - divisionism.
On this, the description of the painting "February Azure" can be considered complete.
In the sixth grade of secondary school, during the Russian language lessons, it is proposed to write an essay based on the painting by IE Grabar "February Azure".
This article can be used as additional material during preparation for the work of students. Biographical information about the artist, as well as the history of the creation of the painting "February Azure" will also be useful to teachers for drawing up a lesson outline.
Childhood
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar was born in Budapest into a family where both parents were engaged in diplomatic activities. In early childhood, the future artist, together with his father and mother, moved to Russia, to the Ryazan province. There, Emmanuel Grabar received the position of a teacher of French at a gymnasium in a small town.
The first memories of the boy, connected with impressions of artistic creation, belong to that period. Once Igor's father took his son to visit his friend, a teacher who taught at the same gymnasium.
The child was so struck by the beauty of the paintings that came out from the pen of his elder friend, and the unusualness of the tools: brushes, easel and others, that he began to beg his parents to give him supplies for this activity. Soon mom and dad bought their son the coveted drawing set.
Choosing a life path
The future author of the painting "February Azure" graduated from the gymnasium, where his father worked as a teacher. After that, he went to study in the capital. The career of an artist seemed to his parents and to him an unrealizable dream, therefore the first education that the young man received was legal.
But he was not destined to work in this field. Immediately after receiving his diploma, he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.
In this educational institution, an outstanding Russian painter, a talented teacher who brought up many art workers, Ilya Repin, becomes his mentor. After a few years, the young man moved to Munich for a while, where he continued to master various drawing techniques.
The history of the creation of the painting "February Azure"
Returning to Russia, the artist, while living in St. Petersburg, often visits his friends from the Moscow region. Once, as a guest of one of his acquaintances, who was also related to the fine arts, Igor Emmanuilovich took a great interest in long walks in the surrounding forests. This was facilitated by the mild, calm weather of the last winter month.
One day in mid-February, a sketch of one of the most famous paintings by Grabar was made. The painting "February Azure" was painted from life. The artist, who dropped his walking stick while walking, bent down to pick it up and saw winter birches in blue hoarfrost from an unusual angle.
Looking upward, Igor Emmanuilovich was amazed by the symmetry of the outlines of the most Russian of all trees, and how festive and elegant it looks against the background of blue snow, smoothly flowing into the sky of the same color. Delighted with the beauty of the winter landscape, Grabar immediately ran to his room, where he made the first sketch of the future canvas.
Painting painted in the trench
In order to be able to observe the landscape from this point of view while working, the master had to make some physical effort. He took a shovel in the back room of his friend's house and dug a hole half a man's height. When the trench was ready, the artist moved there an easel, paints and other accessories necessary for working on the painting "February Azure".
The air temperature at that time was not too low, so the painter could afford to spend several hours a day in the open air. He placed the canvas not in the traditional way, but placing it at an angle, so that the drawing looked down at an acute angle.
With this, the artist has achieved constant shading of the canvas. In low light, the colors seemed dull to him, and he was forced to use the brightest shades. For this reason, Grabar's painting "February Azure" acquired festive, sparkling tones.
Favorite canvas of the master
The painter, who lived for almost 90 years, created numerous works of various genres, nevertheless, even in his declining years, admitted that he considered the painting "February Azure" his most successful creation.
In the foreground of the canvas is a birch covered with sparkling frost, framing delicate delicate branches. Her relatives are standing a little behind, as if Russian girls are in a festive round dance, at the moment when one of them came out to the center of the circle for a solo dance.
Description of Grabar's painting "The Azure Azure" would be incomplete without mentioning the special role played by the shades of blue that prevail in the background of the canvas. This is how the sky and freshly fallen snow appear before the viewer. It seems that if there were no forest on the horizon, it would be impossible to distinguish between the earth and the clouds. The general mood of this landscape seems to be very joyful. As if nature has dressed up, preparing to meet the holiday of the arrival of spring. The predominant color on this canvas is represented by its many shades. At the top of the part of Grabar's painting "Azure Azure", the sky is painted in dark tones, and that part of it, which is closer to the horizon, is depicted in soft blue.
Scientific and educational activities
The description of the painting "February Azure" suggests that the master who created this masterpiece was a great connoisseur of Russian and Western artistic culture, perfectly mastered various drawing techniques, both classical and modern. This assumption is confirmed by facts from the life of the master. Igor Emmanuilovich was engaged not only in the creation of paintings, but also participated in the compilation and editing of a large number of encyclopedias and manuals on the visual arts. For many years he directed the Tretyakov Gallery.
On his initiative, a scientific study of several hundred paintings took place. Detailed annotations were compiled for these canvases, including information about the faces depicted on them, as well as the specific techniques of individual artists. In one of the letters, Igor Emmanuilovich admitted that he was happy to do this kind of work because of the opportunity to consider great creations not at a distance, but being next to the masterpieces.
True patriot
Grabar, as a person who truly loved his country, was always worried about its fate. So, during the Great Patriotic War, the artist laid the foundation for the creation of one of the tank columns, transferring a significant amount of money for this business.
For this initiative, the artist received a letter of gratitude from the leaders of the state. Grabar's creative merits were marked with numerous prizes and awards.
Once, on a clear frosty February morning, landscape painter Igor Grabar went for a daily walk. He accidentally dropped his stick, with which he was making his way through the deep snow, and, bending down for it, accidentally looked up. The artist saw winter weather and nature in a completely different way. Soon Grabar again came to the forest, but this time with his friend. They dug a trench in the snow at the very spot where the artist dropped his stick.
Grabar lay down in this trench and began to paint a picture, so her perspective is so unusual: it is drawn from bottom to top. The work was ready in two weeks. The artist named it "February Azure".
In the painting, I. Grabar depicted a white-trunk birch grove on a sunny frosty winter day. Nature slumbers, covered with a blanket of snow. Everything around shines and shimmers from the bright sun: birch trees, snow, and even the sky, it seems, sparkles from this dazzling light.
A huge, clear, azure firmament spreads high above the grove. The farther from us to the horizon, the more the colors brighten, and in the distance, above the dark forest, it becomes completely light, almost whitish. The sun gently illuminates tall slender birches. It is deceiving at this time of year, because although it shines brightly, it still does not warm. The ringing air is clean and transparent. I remember how in such frosty weather it invigorates and burns the breath with cold.
White birch trees are so tall and spreading! With their thin graceful branches, they reach the very sky! A large old tree in the foreground has obscured almost the entire sky, and it turns blue through the branches, as if through frequent white threads. The pearl trunk of the birch is slightly curved, as if it froze in an inaudible smooth dance. On the tops of the trees, some of last year's yellow, withered leaves are still preserved. They miraculously stayed on the branches, having withstood the strong gusty February winds. And now, shackled by a hard frost, they seem to tinkle slightly as the air moves.
The azure sky reflects off the winter blanket of snow that covered the earth, so it seems not snow-white, but a little bluish. Birches cast long sapphire shadows on the snow. The dense snow around the trees melted slightly from their warmth. Very soon the sun will be warming more and the first thawed patches will appear here.
In the distance, beyond the grove, one can see a long curved ribbon of a light birch forest.
I really like this winter landscape. From him blows frosty freshness and at the same time, the approach of spring is clearly felt. The lines from the poem by A. Pleshcheev come to mind:
"The sky blue is clear, the sun has become warmer and brighter ...".
Nature rejoices: the time of evil blizzards and storms will soon pass, winter will end, warm weather days will come, all living things will wake up from a long sleep, blossom and smell.
