This painting was never finished before Levitan died in 1900. It's a monumental work summarizing everything Levitan loves about his land: its great expanses of earth and sky, the procession of clouds, wind, light and shadow, the reflective waters, small villages with their churches, well-tended fields and grassy shorelines. Saint Paul writes:
My brothers and sisters, I need only add this. If you believe in goodness and if you value the approval of God, fix your minds on whatever is true and honourable and just and pure and lovely and admirable. Philippians 4:8
I especially like that Levitan has allowed the breeze to stir up the water - perhaps reflective of a stirred up imagination. I was taught to fear imagination, as it might be a doorway to sin. That seems so wrong-headed and strange to me now; so distrustful of the God of grace. Imagination is one of the ways we've been made in the image and likeness of God.
Every period of history carries its own sad tale and our day is no exception: these are troubling times. This great painting is Levitan's last gift to us: the cloud-laden, alive, blue sky which could go on forever, is a call to optimism and peace.
Notice too that while the landscape is wide and deep, the three churches pop out in white, one near and the other two farther away. The message is not that they are the place of spirit-life, but that they are part of nature's spirit, which God imagined from the start and for our delight and benefit.
Every period of history carries its own sad tale and our day is no exception: these are troubling times. This great painting is Levitan's last gift to us: the cloud-laden, alive, blue sky which could go on forever, is a call to optimism and peace.
Notice too that while the landscape is wide and deep, the three churches pop out in white, one near and the other two farther away. The message is not that they are the place of spirit-life, but that they are part of nature's spirit, which God imagined from the start and for our delight and benefit.
