Q124499448

Dating to 1895 and held at Polenovo — the estate Polenov created on the Oka River south of Moscow, now a museum dedicated to his life and work — this canvas is deeply embedded in the landscape it depicts or reflects. Polenov purchased the Polenovo estate in 1890 specifically to establish an artistic home and centre for rural education, and he designed the buildings himself. The surrounding river landscape became his primary subject in the 1890s, and many of the works held at Polenovo were made directly from observation of the Oka, its tributaries, and the forested banks that defined the estate's visual character. A painting held at the museum named for the artist, made in the years he was most intensively engaged with that specific landscape, represents the closest possible integration of life, place, and practice.

The Polenovo landscapes of the mid-1890s show Polenov at his most relaxed and intimate — painted on his own land, from subjects he knew in every season. Paint is applied with plein-air directness, light effects studied with the attention possible only through long habitual observation. The palette reflects the specific quality of Oka valley light.