Elder (Abraham, the Servant of God) 1914

Mikhail Nesterov made this painting, Elder (Abraham, the Servant of God), with a quiet kind of reverence that just gets me. The colour feels muted, like a memory, and that texture! It's like he's layering time itself onto the canvas. Look closely and you can see how the paint is built up, especially in the trees. It's not just green, but a mix of greens, browns, and even little touches of blue, like he's really thinking about how light filters through the leaves. The elder is so gently rendered, his white robes almost blending into the misty background. There's a stillness in his posture, and the way the trees mirror his bowed head makes me think about reflection. I'm reminded of other Russian landscape painters, like Isaac Levitan, who also captured the soulfulness of the Russian countryside. It's like they're all part of this ongoing conversation about what it means to be human, to be connected to nature, and to find peace in the simple things.