Focus on this artwork and explore the Sketches.
In 1890, Levitan created a small oil on wood sketch of Fresh Wind. Volga. The sketch outlined the main ideas for the painting. According to Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov, in the final version, Levitan "only streamlined the composition and added some details." The colour of mahogany, which was used to make the board for the sketch, "shines through the liquid paint of the strokes and gives a general tone to the whole colourful range".Levitan's album, which is kept at the Tretyakov Gallery, contains a number of pencil sketches for the painting from 1890 to 1895. Among the sketches from this album, executed with graphite pencil on paper, is the sketch Fresh Wind. Volga (9 × 15 cm), as well as Aft Part of the Barge (9 × 15 cm), Mast (15 × 9 cm), Barges (9 × 15 cm), Steamboat (15 × 9 cm), Upper Part of the Mast. Detail of a Barge (15 × 9 cm), Barge with masts and tugboat (9 × 15 cm) and others. According to Fedorov-Davydov, the sketches of the barges and their details are interesting because of how carefully Levitan studied nature and strove for the accuracy of reproducing the depicted objects.
Sketches of Fresh Wind. Volga
mahogany sketch graphite pencil Barge Tretyakov Gallery masts barge oil on wood Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov tugboat Volga