The landscape of Alexander Andreevich Ivanov was created in the mid-1840s. The painting depicts a chain of young olive trees growing on a low hill. The branches and green foliage of young trees are clearly visible against the sky, illuminated by the rising dawn. Behind the olives, a wide plain looks out, and even further, on the very horizon, a strip of the sea coast is barely visible. The landscape is imbued with tranquility, serenity and proud majesty of the southern nature. The artist managed to capture the moment when the earth is still immersed in the silence of the night, and a month is still visible in the sky – however, the day has already begun, and around with every minute it becomes brighter.
This small landscape, created under the impression of Alexander Ivanov’s travels across the Apennine Peninsula, is one of hundreds of images, sketches and drawings created by the painter in the process of working on the main and most famous creation – the painting “The Appearance of Christ to the People”, on which Ivanov worked all his life. The theme presented in “Olives” and a number of other paintings and sketches entered it as an integral part. Now Ivanov’s work is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.
Year of painting: 1840s.
Painting dimensions: 42.5 x 62.5 cm.
Material: canvas.
Writing technique: oil.
Genre: landscape.
Style: romanticism.
Gallery: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.