Начало Весны. 1912

Vitold Byalynitsky-Birulya painted this landscape, Начало Весны, with oil on canvas, and it's like he’s caught the moment when winter's grip starts to loosen. There’s a real sense of process in the way the marks are laid down, almost like a dance between the brush and the surface. The colors are muted, almost monochromatic, but within that limited palette, there's a surprising depth. Look at the way the light catches the water, how it's not just a flat plane but alive with subtle shifts in tone and texture. You can almost feel the cold, damp air rising off the water. The reflections of the trees are so delicate, like ghostly echoes of the world above, and the textures are build through layers of paint. It’s like the paint itself is mimicking the melting snow, soft and yielding. You can see that Birulya was part of an ongoing conversation about how to represent the world. The painting shares some of the tonal qualities with Corot. What he offers us is a moment, a feeling, rather than a concrete scene.