Sketches of scenery for Sadko by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov 1914

Ivan Bilibin made these stage scenery sketches for Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera "Sadko," probably around 1914. Look at how he renders these otherworldly settings! I mean, the textures of the underwater kingdom above are so delicate, almost like he’s tracing a dream. The colors are muted, but there’s this vibrancy in the way he contrasts the greens and purples. It makes me think about artmaking not just as representation, but as a process of bringing something new into the world. And then below, that crescent moon! I love the way he frames it with those dark, looming pines, creating this sense of depth. It reminds me a bit of Caspar David Friedrich, but with a Russian fairytale twist. Bilibin, like many artists, is in conversation with those who came before, reinterpreting and reimagining. It just goes to show, art is always an evolving dialogue, where ambiguity and imagination always win over fixed meanings.