Melikhovo at spring 

Isaac Levitan created this spring landscape at Melikhovo using watercolor on paper. The wispy, transparent character of watercolor allows for the atmospheric effects we see here. It gives a feeling of dampness and thaw, typical of early spring. Levitan’s brushwork is quick, capturing the fleeting light and the emerging green of the landscape. The thinness of the paint and the visible texture of the paper beneath give the work an ephemeral quality. It’s as if the scene could vanish at any moment, much like the spring thaw itself. Compared to oil painting, the watercolor medium lends itself to small-scale, portable works like this one. Watercolors were typically a middle-class art form during this period, used for sketching and documentation. Yet, Levitan transforms this humble medium into a work of great poetic feeling. He shows us how even the simplest materials, in the hands of a skilled artist, can convey profound meaning.