The Four Seasons

Summer is everyone’s favourite season, when you are
finally able to relax in the sun, go swimming and enjoy nature’s various colours. Many works by artists of different eras and styles are dedicated to summer. Painters depicted happy and sad moments, relaxation and working days.

Autumn is the time when nature fades and prepares for sleep. Wise and mature, however, this season does not sacrifice its beauty. Autumn landscapes touched the souls of Chekhov, Turgenev and many others, leaving heartfelt lines about a period of the year that “is enchanting to the eye” (Pushkin). Artists, writers and musicians found inspiration in autumn roads enveloped in thick fog (Arkhip Kuindzhi) and in golden trees decorating the forest (Isaac Levitan, Stanisław Żukowski, Aristarkh Lentulov and others).

The Russian paintings on display in this exhibition reflect not only the changing seasons but also changes in style and the wealth of motifs and individuality that comprised Russian visual culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. These are vividly expressed in paintings dedicated to the seasons, like Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s musical work of the same name.