Landscape ‘Spring Evening’ [1904, oil on canvas, 87 x 143.5 cm, signed lower right: S. Zhukovsky (written in Cyrillic in Russian), National Art Museum of Odessa, inv. no. Ż-497, Odessa, Ukraine]
In Žukovskij’s next painting, entitled ‘Spring Evening’ (1904), one can see a fusion of a new Impressionist vision and painting technique with a traditional motif. The painting was transferred in 1923 to the Odessa Art Museum from the Odessa Fund Museum. Until then, the canvas had been in the private collection of E.K. Petrokokino (Odessa) and was exhibited at the exhibition ‘Paintings from the Odessa Fund Museum’ (1926, Odessa). ‘Spring Evening’, like other paintings by Zhukovsky created during this period, may mark the beginning of a new, intimate style of lyrical landscape in his work. This novelty did not lie in the rather banal subject matter characteristic of the work of the Peredvizhniki. The work was intended to evoke emotions associated with Impressionist plein air painting.
The subject matter of the painting remains unremarkable. In the foreground, on the left, a wooden shed and part of a gable roof are depicted; on the right, a tree can be seen. The diagonal lines of the shed, situated diagonally across the picture, are balanced compositionally by the vertical group of birches, spruces and a wooden fence in the background. Likewise, the leaning tree in the foreground, on the right-hand side of the painting, breaks up the monotony of the vertical lines dominating the background and creates a compositional balance. Behind the trees on the right, the silhouettes of rural cottages can be made out. At the centre of the composition, in its upper left-hand corner, on a small hill behind the birches, the artist has placed the silhouette of an Orthodox church. Here, too, a snow-covered courtyard appears, rendered in the blue and white colours of early spring. At first glance, the composition depicts an ordinary fragment of nature that captivated the painter. Stanisław Żukowski’s landscapes were always distinguished by the logic of their composition, utilising diagonal and parabolic lines, with a low or high horizon. His compositions were characterised by a balance between architectural and natural forms. In the landscape ‘Spring Evening’, the centre of the composition is highlighted by colour and the asymmetrical arrangement of architectural and natural elements within the space.
The only indication of spring in this painting is the masterfully rendered damp spring air. Despite the rather chilly evening, it alone conveys a sense of spring. The poetic mood is conveyed through the expressive means of plein air painting: the richness of the colour palette, the ability to create harmony, the unification of contrasts in the rhythms of coloured planes and patches characteristic of the spring palette – the interplay of cool and warm colours within a single decorative system of shadows. The texture is also dynamic, with paint applied directly to the canvas in brushstrokes of varying lengths. The evening sky breathes with a multitude of delicate hues – reflected on the surface of the snow. The sun sinks below the horizon, its final rays still illuminating the cold world. The warmth of the ochre-coloured shadows, in shades of yellow and olive, glides gently over the tree trunks, parts of the courtyard and the edge of the sky, harmoniously transcending the boundaries of the warm colour scheme. Cool colours take centre stage – ranging from blue, light grey and violet to deep navy blue and dark green.
Against the bright backdrop of blue snow with white ridges, the grey, pale violet and light brown colours of the old wood from which the shed is built stand out in vivid contrast. On its roof, the shadows cast by the branches of the tree opposite the shed, rendered in navy blue, create a beautiful decoration. The wooden fence and a cluster of dark-green spruce trees are rendered in deep grey-blue hues. With a light brushstroke, the artist has depicted the silhouettes of the shed, the fence and the cluster of trees. Each distinct brushstroke shapes the essence of the form, revealing the painter’s creative temperament. The manner of the brushstrokes captures the shimmer of the evening light and the ethereal atmosphere, which soften the contours and objects. Stanisław Żukowski deliberately imbues his paintings with poetic freedom and a perception of the world and nature, freeing himself from any ideological or social motifs in art.