In this artwork, how is the History discussed?
The painting is of special importance to the artistic reputation of Alexander Semionov. Created on the apex of his artistic career, five years before his death, it became one of his most famous works. In Malaya Sadovaya Street the artist presents the image of one of the most beautiful streets in the city, as well as a romantic and extremely attractive image of the Leningrad of the late of 1970s. In the painting Semionov convincingly conveyed a sense of time and place, the unhurried flow of Leningrad life.
In the late 1970s Alexander Semionov was a recognized master of the Leningrad landscape, with his recognizable handwriting. This genre took a leading place in his work in the 1960s. The artist invariably painted his works from nature as sketches-pictures, seeking the transmission of a live direct impression, working with both brush and palette knife.Semionov liked to painted the city in rainy weather, doing it with a special mood, masterfully passing the game of reflections on the wet asphalt, the shiny roofs of buses and cars, pedestrians under umbrellas, which are so consonant with our image of the city on the Neva. This theme was developed by him for decades and is reflected in the works Rainy Day (1958), Rainy Day in the Summer Garden (1961), On the Palace Square, On Kirov Prospekt (both 1965), Nevsky Prospekt (1977), Nevsky Prospekt in the Rain (1983), and others.
In 1979, in Leningrad, with great success, the first solo exhibition of the works of Semionov was held. Most of the works shown at the exhibition belonged to the genre of the urban lyrical landscape. The warm response that met his creativity, inspired the artist; he experienced a need to express himself and his attitude towards Leningrad in new forms.
Thus, the motif with Malaya Sadova was born, which the artist had long to seek. The classic proportions of the city-museum and the distinctive signs of the present, the recognizable architectural scenery and the city's equally obligatory signs, like rain, umbrellas and wet asphalt, the brightly drawn painter's picturesque accents and the general muffled palette, filled the entire composition with special Leningrad scattered light. So thanks to the inspiration of the master was created one of the most recognizable lyrical images of Leningrad in the 1970s.
Leningrad Malaya Sadovaya Street Alexander Semionov