L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e ~ D o s t o ï e v s k i

L a - b e a u t é - s a u v e r a - l e - m o n d e  ~  D o s t o ï e v s k i



Sunday, December 21, 2014

Interiors by Stanislav Zhukovsky


1917.

Stylistically, these interiors are the opposite of those by Premazzi, who I posted about last week. While the work of that transplanted Italian has a decidedly pre-Impressionist precision and quietude - though he was still able to wonderfully capture the atmosphere of the grand rooms he portrayed - Zhukovsky was a whole-hearted Impressionist, with his rough brushwork, sometimes skewed perspective, and often wildly vivid, unexpected color. In many of his paintings that color is so saturated - and saturating - that it almost becomes a pattern in itself, the real reason behind the image. But in his work here - at least in the more intimate of the settings I've selected - he still manages to wonderfully capture the sense that these rooms are truly lived in: the breeze ruffling the leaves in the trees beyond the flung-open windows, and birdsong; the warmth of the sun streaming in and the smell of that warmth on the upholstery and rugs and polished wood, the smell of books and cut flowers; the creak of the floorboards as, just out of view, the people who inhabit these rooms go about their lives.

"Library in a Manor House", circa 1910.
(This room appears to adjoin the one above.)
The Sitting Room at Brasovo, the country estate of the Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich, 1916.
Brasovo, 1916.
Brasovo, 1916.
The Sitting Room, Rozhdestveno, 1910.
Another view of the room above.
1939.
The Drawing Room, Rozhdestveno, 1912.
1914.
Ballroom of Lazienki Palace, Warsaw, circa 1924.
"King's Study", Lazienki, circa 1924.
Lazienki, circa 1924.
The Crimson Reception Room, Kuskovo.
Great Vestibule, Kuskovo.
The Picture Gallery, Pavlovsk.
A different reproduction - an "alternate take" - of the above painting of the
Sitting Room at Brasovo;both are charming, but which is more like?



No comments:

Post a Comment