Friday, February 5, 2021

In the absence of human complication - a selection of landscapes by Konstantin Somov

 
In the Park of Versailles, 1894.

Like so many of his artist contemporaries, members of the Mir Iskusstva group, Somov produced work in a wide range of subject matter. Whether in pencil, charcoal, chalk, or in watercolor, gouache, tempera, and oil, he was incredibly prolific, creating countless portraits, historicist genre scenes, book illustrations, work for the theater, interiors, still-lives, erotica. And he certainly painted landscapes, but when he did they were almost always peopled with frolicking, overdressed - or underdressed - ladies, or passionate lovers from mythology; Nature was only a backdrop for the human pageant. So I was delighted to find these examples of straightforward, masterful - and humanless - landscape paintings.

Landscape with Grey Clouds, 1897.
 Overgrown Pond, 1899.
Bosquet, 1901.
Ploughland, 1900.
 A Path Between the Birch Trees, 1914.
Landscape with Lake, 1896.
Green Slope on the Road. Martyshkino, 1902.
Rainbow I, 1908.
Oranienbaum, 1901.
Forest, 1900.
Twilight. Evening Landscape with a Lilac Bush on the Right, 1921.
Autumn in the Park at Versailles, 1898.
After the Rain, 1896.
Landscape, 1908.
Summer Landscape, 1900.
A Clearing by the Lake, 1908.
Before Sundown, 1900.
Woodland, 1903.
Edge of the Forest. Ligovo, 1894.
Garden, 1897.
Summer Twilight. Pond, 1897.
Grove by the Sea, 1900.
The Grand Staircase, Gardens of Versailles, 1897. (The western of the Escaliers des Cent Marches that flank the Orangerie.)

And then sometimes a few people aren't so bad....

Twilight in the Old Park, 1897.
Bathers, 1899.



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5 comments:

  1. Jane and Lance HattattFebruary 5, 2021 at 8:08 AM

    Hello!

    Thank you for the introduction to the art of Somov, an artist unknown to us before now. The landscapes are dreamy and, as you say, rather better for the absence of humans. Intriguing to have found these works which do seem to be completely different from his usual subjects. The skies look particularly intriguing.

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    1. StephiliusFebruary 5, 2021 at 11:16 AM

      Hello J-and-L! Somov was a wonderful artist, so very versatile... and - rather - inconsistent; he was capable of the most elegant, beautifully crafted work, but also ill-drawn, kitschy smut. ; )

      I was so happy to find theses pieces, "pure" landscape. I came the first two ages ago and, deciding they were insufficient to post on their own, stashed them away in a folder on my laptop. The internet being the internet - if you wait long enough, what you're trying to find eventually shows up - only recently all the others just "magically" appeared.



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    2. StephiliusFebruary 5, 2021 at 11:18 AM

      Or is that "smutty kitsch"...?

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  2. Jane and Lance HattattFebruary 5, 2021 at 11:38 AM

    Hello again,

    Yes, it is one of life's mysteries that when one is looking for something it is never to be found and, yet, when one almost forgets about it, by magic it appears. Serendipity!

    Smutty kitsch is a delicious phrase.... please may we steal it?!!

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