Landscape "Moonrise" [1902, oil, canvas, 49 x 83 cm, signed l.d.: S. Žukovskij (inscription in Russian), National Art Museum in Odesa, inv. no. 498-Ż, Odesa, Ukraine]
In his paintings, Zhukovsky most often depicted evening or night landscapes - he painted nocturnes depicting nature. The artist liked to compose moonlit paintings because of their enigmatic and poetic nature. The atmospheric conditions that created an atmospheric atmosphere also offered the opportunity to use striking impressionistic light elements.
In 1902. Żukowski showed his painting 'Moonrise'. He painted an autumn night that fell over a small hill. The dreamy atmosphere works on the imagination and has something magnetic about it. The space of the painting is divided into four horizontal and coloured zones. In the first of these, in the left-hand corner, there is a large haystack. In the middle of the second zone, from right to left of the hillock, a ravine extends. Higher up is another hillock and the nocturnal outlines of the forest are visible. The last zone of the composition is the sky. The moon reigns over the night world, but the painter has also put blue and dark blue paint in the sky beside it. A nocturnal milky mist streaks across the ground and, together with the moonlight, penetrates the dark surface. The painting is completed by a state of complete silence, the world is plunged into a magical and deep sleep. Night and moonlight connect the two fundamental planes of the painting: sky and earth. The softness of the night ether and the fog provide the opportunity to paint the landscape without open colour contrasts. All the tones are soft, blurred in places. Żukowski used the 'impasto' technique, i.e. the dense application of colours with a dynamic brushstroke. In the third and fourth zones of the composition, delicate and subtle brushstrokes are noticeable. The atmosphere of the landscape is intimate and mysterious. The night land seems to breathe - it is a mist illuminated by moonlight. The vapour descends into the ink-dark depths of a ravine. This motif, like the pearly moonlight, brings a vague sense of unease. The artist has succeeded masterfully in rendering the nocturnal, changing atmospheric conditions, conveying the effect of natural lighting in the nocturnes, and improving the painting style - broad, filled with feeling and vivid colours.