Winter Sunset 1917

Konstantin Gorbatov captured this wintery landscape with oil on canvas. I'm immediately drawn to the sky, it’s like a faded memory, a hazy blue peeking through the trees. I can almost feel Gorbatov outside, battling the cold, trying to capture the light before it fades away. Look how the dabs of paint create a kind of shimmering effect on the snow. It is not just white, but a mix of blues and purples, each stroke adding depth and texture. It’s like he’s not just painting what he sees, but what he feels—the chill in the air, the quiet of the snow. That single orange building in the background – is that a house? Does someone live there? Painters are always looking at the work of other painters; they share a visual language that evolves over decades. You see this kind of impressionistic landscape in the work of many Russian painters of the time. Painting can hold a moment, an emotion, a fleeting impression. It’s a process of continuous exchange, inspiring new ways of seeing and feeling the world.