The painting "Paris" and other works by Konstantin Korovin

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Born in Moscow (1861) and visiting the capital of France for the first time in 1887, K. A. Korovin forever fell in love with this festive city and the art of the Impressionists. Sometimes one gets the feeling that before the eyes of Konstantin Alekseevich there was always a noisy and cheerful picture - Paris. He came to it in 1892, 1893, then repeatedly in the first decade of the 20th century, and from 1923 he lived in it. The city occupied his imagination at any time of the day.

Paris Awakening

The artist looks at the city from above. This is a picture of Paris. Morning (1907). Without lights, the city is illuminated only by an orange speck of the sun. Everything is shrouded in gray fog, through which walls, windows with cornices, a narrow street with occasional passers-by can hardly be seen. Puffs of smoke rise from the chimneys. All houses have lost clarity. The painting "Paris. Morning" creates the impression of chilliness and uncomfortable working life. The evening and night landscapes of Paris evoke a completely different mood.

Memories of contemporaries about K. Korovin

He was a cheerful and charming interlocutor who, with his stories, could captivate both the romantic young ladies of Turgenev and their aunts and grandmothers. He was the soul and favorite of any company. This joker with a cheerfulIt was not by chance that he found his own artistic style. Any painting "Paris" (1907, 1933) will tell more about the painter than all the memories. In the late evening and at night, bright light floods the squares and boulevards, where Parisians walk or return from theaters and restaurants. And how good is the Moulin Rouge - a source of joy and enjoyment of a hectic life.

What contrasting colors it is filled with tightly! The bright greenery of the trees, illuminated like the sun by the evening lights, frames the red mill, the blades of which are dotted with lights. The ultramarine façade of the left side of the building harmoniously merges with the iridescent green color of the tree crowns and contrasts with the side, painted in joyful scarlet. Under the flat roof of the Moulin Rouge, it is unbearably light from a huge number of lights. This light fills, slightly weakening, the entire area in front of him. The contours of people and cars are hardly visible on it. Gorgeous, made for fun, the Moulin Rouge draws the viewer in.

Evening city

The picture "Paris after the rain" is full of sadness and despondency. Involuntarily, Paul Verlaine's lines come to mind: "The sky above the city is crying, my heart is crying too." The city is dark, dim, the contours of trunks without foliage and the silhouettes of houses are barely visible. And nearby, in contrast, you can put the night "Paris Boulevard", which goes into the distance, where an inexpressibly blue sky opens up.

Its reflections turn blue on the pavement and cover the edges of houses in the distance with a blue-black color. From the light of lanterns and advertising lights in small cafes, it is goodvisible red brick facades of houses with luminous windows, bright cars on the pavement. It plays with reddish-golden hues under their light. Once again, a city-holiday, a city-dream opens before us, where every person will be happy to take a walk, especially if he has a sketchbook or an easel in his hands.

Romance of Paris

Full of emotions and lofty enthusiastic feelings, the mood is created by K. Korovin's paintings of evening and night Paris: bright light and reflections of its lights, vanity or unhurried movement of smart passers-by, flashing cars. We look at the picture and see the spectacle as if on a stage, although the artist did not set himself a staging effect. The real picture of Paris gives entertainment and fantasy. The view from the window or from the balcony opens up a theatrical performance right on the street. There is always something going on in it. Only an artist stops a moment of beauty before us.

The painter's romantic worldview is transmitted to the viewer by the power of color contrasts. Autumn "Paris" (1933) is flooded with golden light. Glittering golden-red foliage on the trees. Violet hues appear in the silvery evening sky. The outlines of houses hide and dissolve, but cafes and restaurants under awnings glow brightly, numerous pedestrians cross the road, cars drive briskly, life is full of adventures unknown to us and sudden or planned meetings.

After another rain

And it rained again, but what joy it brought! Paris has many faces.

Before you, the picture "Paris after the rain." A photograph can hardly convey all the festive shades of an elegant street, the lack of everyday life in everything. A bluish-purple sky, all in complex shades, casts reflections on the pavement. They mix with the light coming from the numerous cafes, reflecting on the red-orange brick walls of residential buildings. Windows framed with blue shutters glow with warm gold. On three classic colors: red, yellow and blue, the color scheme of the picture is built. They make you remember the favorite colors of the Renaissance, transferred to the 20th century. The painting "Paris after the rain" (by K. Korovin) reflects the music of the artist's soul. Some kind of elusive charm lives in this canvas, a new understanding of the beautiful, quivering and charm.

"Absolute ear" for signs of life allowed the master to see what others do not notice. This cannot be learned. If this is given to the painter by nature, then together with diligence and abilities, masterpieces are born, of which K. Korovin has many.