Vladimirka (painting)
Levitan began sketching Vladimirka in 1892, when he was living in the Vladimir Governorate of the Russian Empire. The painting was completed in Moscow the same year. It was displayed at the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions' 21st exhibition in February 1893, which opened in Saint Petersburg and then moved to Moscow in March. Levitan donated the painting to the Tretyakov Gallery in March 1894, where it is still housed today.
According to artist Mikhail Nesterov, Vladimirka could be "boldly called a Russian historical landscape, of which there are few in our art". Art historian Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov described the painting as one of Levitan's best; it was his "universally recognised masterpiece", in which "deep social content is expressed organically and directly in the landscape".
History
Levitan left Moscow for the Vladimir Governorate on 12 May 1892, accompanied by the artist Sofia Kuvshinnikova. They settled in Gorodok, a village on the Peksha River (now part of Peksha village, Vladimir Oblast). On 13 May, Levitan wrote to Pavel Tretyakov: "I've settled in a pretty nice area and I'm thinking of working here". He spent the summer of 1892 there. The house Levitan lived in was later turned into a museum before being destroyed by fire on 22 August 1999.
Kuvshinnikova wrote about the source of inspiration for Levitan's Vladimirka. On one occasion, as they were returning from a hunt, they emerged onto the Vladimir Highway, an unpaved road that ran east from Moscow and was frequently used to ferry prisoners to Siberia for exile. Kuvshinnikova summarised their feelings as follows: "The view had a wonderful, quiet charm to it. Between the trees, a long, white-washed stretch of road extended into the distance. A crumbling old dovecote with a weathered icon and two distant golubets (a roof on a grave or worship cross) both hinted at long-forgotten antiquity. Everything seemed soft and cozy". Levitan later recalled that this was the same Vladimirka where the chained prisoners had travelled to Siberia. In the days that followed, Levitan came back to this road several times to paint a sketch for a future painting. He finished the sketch in a few sessions. Then, in order to quickly paint the picture he had imagined, he departed for Moscow. The work on the canvas was swiftly finished after being recently inspired by the landscape seen on the Vladimir Highway. After completing the work, Levitan inscribed the title of the painting—Володимірка (Vladimirka)—on the canvas. The artist had never previously added painting titles to his canvases, so this was an unusual step for him.
Vladimirka and four other Levitan works were exhibited at the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions' twenty-first exhibition, which debuted in Saint Petersburg in February 1893 before moving to Moscow in March. The landscape paintings in the exhibition received very little attention from Saint Petersburg critics; the only mention of Vladimirka was in the 47th issue of the Peterburgskaya Gazeta on 18 February 1893, where it was noted that Vladimirka had "the most unattractive 'grey' motives" and the author remarked, "What could be more boring than 'Vladimirka' by Levitan?" More reviews of the painting appeared in the press after the exhibition was relocated to Moscow, the majority of which were complimentary; in particular, Vladimir Sizov (Russkiye Vedomosti), Vladimir Gringmut (Moskovskiye Vedomosti), and Mikhail Korelin (Russkaya mysl) all praised the work.
Despite the positive reviews, the painting was not purchased during the exhibition. Levitan gave the painting to the Tretyakov Gallery a year later, in March 1894. In a letter to Pavel Tretyakov dated 11 March 1894, Levitan wrote: "'Vladimirka' will probably return from the exhibition one of these days; take it and calm me and her [the painting]".
Description
"Vladimirka" was a common name for the Vladimir Highway, notorious for being the road where prisoners were transported to Siberia on foot. Prisoners were being transported by train by the time the painting was created at the end of the 19th century.
The painting depicts a vast plain with a road that extends from the foreground into the middle, passing through woods and fields before vanishing in the horizon's blue haze. Vladimirka has an immense depth of field, drawing the viewer's attention all the way to the horizon. The length of the road is highlighted by the narrow paths that run alongside it on either side. Two other paths also cross the street from left to right. There is a golubets on the right where a praying woman is standing with her knapsack on her shoulders. According to Averil King, the lonely figure of the woman praying to the golubets, the cloudy landscape and the desolate road all create a "picture filled with sadness and foreboding" that suggests "the despair of the shackled men and women who had trudged eastward through these lonely wastes". The only signs of hope are the bright spot in the horizon and the distant white church.