Paper Lanterns
Konstantin Korovin·1896
Historical Context
Paper Lanterns, painted in 1896 and held in the Tretyakov Gallery, is among Konstantin Korovin's most distinctive early Impressionist works. Korovin had studied with Vasily Polenov and Ilya Repin at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and had absorbed Impressionist principles both through Russian teachers sympathetic to plein-air methods and through direct exposure to French Impressionism during visits to Paris in the 1880s and 1890s. Paper Lanterns depicts a garden evening scene with colored light from hanging lanterns — a subject that gave Korovin the opportunity to explore the effects of artificial colored light on surfaces and atmosphere, the kind of optical problem that fascinated Impressionists from Monet's series paintings onward. The Tretyakov holds this as a signature work of his early mature phase, when his position as Russia's leading Impressionist-influenced painter was being consolidated.
Technical Analysis
Korovin exploits the contrast between the warm glowing light of the lanterns and the cooler ambient evening atmosphere. The paint surface is built up with short, broken strokes in the Impressionist manner, creating optical mixing that reads as unified color at a viewing distance. The lanterns themselves are painted with thick impasto to suggest luminosity against the more fluid background.
Look Closer
- ◆The colored light from paper lanterns creates warm pools of amber and yellow that contrast sharply with the cool blue-grey of the evening sky.
- ◆The broken, comma-like brushstrokes in the foliage demonstrate Korovin's assimilation of French Impressionist technique.
- ◆Thick impasto is used selectively for the most luminous parts of the lanterns, creating a physical surface quality that adds to the sense of glowing light.
- ◆The scene captures a specific atmospheric moment — a summer evening gathering — with the documentary immediacy Impressionism valued.
