The word idyllic comes to me when viewing this painting. Idyllic means, extremely happy, peaceful, picturesque — an ideal place and time. This is a pond at Abramtsevo, the artist colony far from the city, which invited and encouraged creativity by leaving nature undisturbed. No paved parking lot for a thousand cars and a twenty-storied, neon hotel here. Many well-known painters visited Abramtsevo, including Vasily Polenov.
It is a lovely summer day. The leaves and plants are a darker shade than spring green. Two well-dressed ladies are wearing summer clothes. One even wears a summer straw hat. The pond is surrounded by tall reeds. An ancient decaying tree leans over the pond. We might say the waterlilies sparkle on the deep green pond. A few have gotten tangled in the net hanging off the side of the boat.
The ladies are enjoying the calm. One has her back to us. The other faces us, but the brim of her hat conceals her identity. A boy in a sailor's suit rows. Maybe this is his summer job — paddling guests around the pond. There seems to be no breeze; the only disturbance is the rippling of the water created by the small boat. Verdure refers to this abundant, fresh, green world.
The sun has found a way in through the shade cast by the tall trees and is shining a kind of spotlight on the boat. The darkened shore seems to encapsulate the boat. These folks don't even seem to be in conversation; one of the ladies is reading her book. I expect they are feeling inwardly as calm as the outer, watery world they float on. I like to imagine the surround sounds — the soft paddling, perhaps there is bird song, maybe the barely audible conversations of people in the distance.
A singer whose every note is "spot on" is said to have perfect pitch. It is said of Vasily Polenov that he had perfect sight — that he captured this sense of calm and peace utterly.
We seem to have been created for this.
