The Vladimir Road is a landscape masterpiece created by Russia-based painter Isaak Levitan who was well-recognized for his endless pursuit of beauty of nature.
In Isaac Levitan paintings, he depicted the sublime aspects of nature, spiritualized the shape and condition of nature to carry and represent the human soul. What this painting depicting is a real road leading east from Moscow to Vladimir and Nizhny Novgorod. It became the section of the Great Siberian Road connecting Siberia and Europe, witnessing crowds of people’s suffering and misery which is vividly shown in Isaak painting with same title.
This thought-provoking painting leaves an impression of far-reaching and extensive on viewers by using low visual horizon, showing us a vast expanse of desolate field. We can see endless miles of clouded sky and barren and desolate road at first glimpse. The clouds in far distance circling above the field seem to swallow the road, making the road endless. This realism painting is heavily dosed with desolate elements, tombstone and deserted signpost along the road make their appearance, creating an atmosphere of loneliness. The only thing to enliven this painting is the blue sky with thousands of miles of white clouds, giving people hope and longing for freedom from imprisonment and chains of misery.
As all know, the road was a way of exiles to Siberia, carrying boundless suffering and misery that is fully embodied in this painting. Obviously, all these mentioned above convey Levitan’s strong emotions for those Russian exile’s misery and suffering happened along this road.
The Vladimir S Road 1892
