This Official Postcrossing card made its way to me from Russia! This card shows Alexei Savrasov, a Russian painter, painted by Vasily Perov, also a Russian painter. Oh dear so who do I focus on?! Huh, what’s that? Both, you say? I don’t get paid enough to talk about two subjects at once. Okay y’know what, today’s your lucky day, LET’S TALK ABOUT BOTH! Alexei Savrasov is known for being the inventor of “lyrical landscape painting”, or “mood landscape painting”, which is a realist style. This can be seen in one of his works titled “The Rooks Have Come Back”, an 1871 work where one can see buildings out in the background, and bare trees in the foreground with birds (rooks) chilling out on the branches. This supposes the end of the winter and the transition back to an environment full of life. I believe this sort of transitional vibe is characteristic of “lyrical landscaping” (of course, as with many works of art, this is subject to interpretation!) Then you have Vasily Perov, the creator of this work seen here, and a pioneer of a new style of realism in Russia (so, similar to what Savrasov did, I suppose). A common detail in Perov’s paintings is the expression achieved despite the use of what would otherwise be dull colors. It’s almost like his paintings have like a yellowish overlay on them… but they still portray a profound sense of realism. Or maybe the use of such brownish-greyish colors adds a more austere mood to the paintings? I can’t really say – easiest answer is it’s entirely up to interpretation! Fun fact for not-so-artsy people: Savrasov and Perov both had bangin’ beards XD Thanks so much for the postcard, Michael!
