Autumn (By the pond) by Stanislav Zhukovsky

Autumn is one of Zhukovsky’s favorite themes, in it he reaches a wide range – from the mild sadness of a dull gray day to the dazzling, sun-drenched autumn landscape. Etude “Autumn” is written in major tones. The landscape is illuminated by the rays of a dim sun. It has a pale blue sky and a bright blue rippled water surface, a cozy courtyard with a simple life reviving the landscape.

Fragmentary composition involves the viewer in direct communication with a small corner of nature. Etude becomes the final goal of the artist, because it preserves the immediacy of the perception of nature. The expressiveness of pictorial techniques is so adequate to the physical state of nature that one of the critics “saw the wind itself depicted.”