Etude – the first in a large series of “landscapes with boys,” created by Ivanov in the 1850s. Etudes played an applied, auxiliary role: working on a large picture, the artist checked and clarified the light and spatial relationships of figures and landscape. He sought to combine traditional composition and drawing with new concepts of color and light.
Etude was written in Italy in the vicinity of Albano, where there were many stony hills. Ivanov arranged and seated his sitters in the same way, by which he placed groups of characters in the Appearance of Christ to the people: one of the figures is in the background, on the hill; two others sit in the shade of the rock on the left, two figures are depicted on the rocky slope to the right and, finally, in the foreground the artist places the sitting boy and next to him – the naked figure of a standing sitter.
Natural sunlight transforms the landscape and shapes, makes the colors play infinitely rich and varied shades. The swarthy body of a naked boy contrasts with a white cloth on which play green and blue shadows. The white shirt of the model, sitting in the shade, is written in blue.
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