ALEXEI KONDRATIEVICH SAVRASOV | LOSINY OSTROV

Situated in the north east of Moscow, Losiny Ostrov was for centuries a strictly guarded hunting area reserved for Grand Dukes and Tsars. In the 19th century the forest became a popular location for duels, famously immortalised by Leo Tolstoy in War and Peace. The wild beauty of this natural area was also popular with artists: Savrasov’s 1869 masterpiece Losiny Ostrov in Sokolniki was awarded first prize in a competition of the Moscow Society of Art Lovers and immediately acquired by Pavel Tretyakov, while Levitan’s Autumn Day. Sokolniki brought recognition to the young and then unknown artist.

By 1881 Savrasov had been greatly affected by the death of his only daughter, alcoholism and a deepening disillusionment; the palette becomes more sombre and the landscapes less populated, but still heartbreakingly beautiful. Here, the unmatched draughtsmanship and depth of artistic expression characteristic of his earlier work is very much in evidence.

Despite the isolation and poverty of the last years of his life, the admiration of his peers and pupils never wavered. In Isaak Levitan's summation after his death: ‘Savrasov created the Russian landscape, and this undoubted merit will never be forgotten in the field of Russian art’.