View source for February Azure

{{Short description|1904 landscape painting by Igor Grabar}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox artwork 
 |medium            = [[Oil on canvas]]
 |image             = Grabar February azure 1904 gtg.jpg
 |title             = February Azure
 |other_language_1  = Russian
 |other_title_1     = Февральская лазурь
 |artist            = [[Igor Grabar]]
 |year              = 1904
 |movement          = 
 |height_metric     = 142.6
 |width_metric      = 84.8
 |city              = Moscow
 |museum            = [[Tretyakov Gallery]]
 |owner             = Tretyakov Gallery
}}
'''''February Azure''''' ({{lang-ru|Февральская лазурь|Fevral'skaya lazur'|link=no}}{{--)}}, also known as '''''February Blue''''',<ref>{{cite book |title=The Tretyakov Gallery, a Short Guide |first=Serafim Nikolaevich |last=Druzhinin |page=86 |year=1955 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1ZHAQAAIAAJ |access-date=2023-05-19 |via=[[Google Books]] |publisher=Foreign Languages Publishing House |oclc=4019473 |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719043427/https://books.google.com/books?id=H1ZHAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> is a [[landscape painting]] by Russian [[Post-Impressionist]] painter [[Igor Grabar]]. Having been inspired by wintry scenery with vibrant and diverse colours near the [[Pakhra]] river in [[Moscow]] in February&nbsp;1904, Grabar completed the painting after working for two consecutive weeks ''[[in situ]]'' under an umbrella, in a trench he had dug in the snow.

''February Azure'' was presented to the public at the second exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists which opened in [[Saint Petersburg]] in 1904. The [[Tretyakov Gallery]] in Moscow purchased the painting from Grabar in 1905 after a unanimous decision of the museum's board of directors. Grabar considered ''February Azure'' a sum of several separate, lengthy observations—in a sense, a synthesis of them—and a revolutionary work that opened up a path Russian art had not explored until then.

==Studies and background==

At the first exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists in 1903, Grabar became acquainted with one of the participating artists, {{ill|Nikolai Meshcherin|ru|Мещерин, Николай Васильевич}}. Meshcherin invited Grabar to stay at his family estate on the bank of the [[Pakhra]] river in Moscow.<ref name="Mamontova"/> Grabar, being eager to paint snow and winter, accepted the invitation; he liked winter landscapes because he regarded snow as an ideal basis to use many different lighting effects on in painting.<ref name="Minsk">{{cite web |title=февральская лазурь: Грабарь, Игорь Эммануилович |trans-title=February Azure: Grabar, Igor Emmanuilovich |url=https://artmuseum.by/ru/collection/russkae-mastatctva-xviii-pachatku-xx-v/fevralskaia-lazur |publisher=[[National Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus]] |language=ru |access-date=2023-05-17 |archive-date=29 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329104351/https://artmuseum.by/ru/collection/russkae-mastatctva-xviii-pachatku-xx-v/fevralskaia-lazur |url-status=live }}</ref> The wealthy Meshcherin family, who owned the Danilovskaya factory, were hospitable and helped Grabar feel home at their place during the stay, providing him with a sleigh with a carriage to travel around the area for his [[Study (art)|studies]].<ref name="Mamontova"/> During one of his usual wanderings near the estate in February&nbsp;1904, he allegedly encountered "something extraordinary going on in nature. [...] a feast of azure skies, pearl birches, coral twigs, and sapphire shadows on the lilac snow", which impressed him deeply enough that he decided to embody it in a painting.<ref name="Grabar_p201"/>

{{multiple image|align=right|direction = horizontal|image2 = Grabar February azure study 1904 nhmrb.jpg |width2 = 144 |caption1 =''Winter'', preparatory study, 75.2&nbsp;cm × 55&nbsp;cm<ref name="Serebryakova"/> (29.6&nbsp;in x 22&nbsp;in) |image1 = Grabar Winter study for February azure 1904 grm.jpg |width1 = 135 |caption2 =''February Azure'', preparatory study, 90&nbsp;cm × 72&nbsp;cm<ref name="Kruglov_p19"/> (35&nbsp;in × 28&nbsp;in)}}

Grabar first painted a study on a small canvas, then took a larger canvas and worked on another study for the next three days on the same spot.<ref name="Grabar_p201">{{cite book |title=Моя жизнь: автомонография |trans-title=My Life: An Automonograph |last=Grabar |first=Igor Emmanuilovich |author-link=Igor Grabar |url=https://www.prlib.ru/item/1310174 |language=ru |via=[[Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library]] |year=1937 |access-date=2023-05-19 |location=Moscow |publisher=Искусство |page=201 |archive-date=15 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230215144155/https://www.prlib.ru/item/1310174 |url-status=live }}</ref> Both studies survived: the first one, titled ''Winter'', is stored in the collection of the [[State Russian Museum]] under the inventory number {{lang|ru|Ж-2219}} in Saint Petersburg,<ref name="Serebryakova">{{cite book |trans-chapter=On the Failed Donation to the Museum of Russian Art |first=N. Y. |last=Serebryakova |chapter=О несостоявшемся даре музею русского искусства |title=Международная научнопрактическая конференция «Рериховское наследие»: Том III: Восток – Запад на берегах Невы |trans-title=International Research and Practice Conference "Roerich's Heritage": Volume III: East-West on the Banks of the Neva |url=https://roerich.spb.ru/doc/rh/RH-2003-1.pdf |access-date=2023-05-18 |pages=73, 75 |publisher=[[Saint Petersburg State University]] |lang=ru |year=2007 |location=[[Saint Petersburg]] |isbn=9785810803072 |archive-date=2 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502143118/https://roerich.spb.ru/doc/rh/RH-2003-1.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and the second, titled ''February Azure'', is kept in the [[National Art Museum of Belarus]] in [[Minsk]].<ref name="Minsk"/><ref name="Kruglov_p19">{{cite book |last=Kruglov |first=Vladimir |title=Игорь Грабарь  |publisher=Золотой век |year=2008 |isbn=978-5-342-00110-6 |page=19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PIhEAQAAIAAJ |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=2023-05-19 |lang=ru |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719043429/https://books.google.com/books?id=PIhEAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Afterwards, he dug a trench more than {{convert|1|m|ft|spell=in}} deep in the snow, in which he settled down with an easel and a canvas mounted on it so he could get an impression of "a low horizon and the celestial zenith, with all the gradations of blue from light-green below to [[ultramarine]] at the top". He had prepared the canvas beforehand in the studio, covering it with a dense layer of [[lead white]] in varying tones. The daily work lasted for two weeks, uninterrupted and entirely ''[[in situ]]''. Grabar recalled that, fortunately for him, the snow did not melt during the period as the weather stayed cold.<ref name="Grabar_p201"/> He worked under an umbrella, and with the front side of the canvas turned towards the sky so that the sunlight reflected on the snow did not fall on the painting, which would have affected his perception of the colours on it.<ref>{{cite book |title=Игорь Эммануилович Грабарь |trans-title=Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar |first=Olga Ilyinichna |last=Podobedova |page=95 |year=1964 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U9FWAAAAMAAJ |access-date=2023-05-17 |via=[[Google Books]] |publisher=Советский художник |language=ru |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719043430/https://books.google.com/books?id=U9FWAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Grabar_p201"/>

== Descriptions and reception ==
[[File:February azure by Igor Grabar at the Grabar exhibition in Tretyakov Gallery IMG 7817.jpg|thumb|left|''February Azure'' was among the exhibits at the 150th anniversary exhibition of Grabar's birth in the Tretyakov Gallery.<ref>{{cite news |title=Грабарь как он есть: яркая выставка в Третьяковке, на которую надо сходить |trans-title=Grabar as he is: a vivid exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery you should visit |lang=ru |access-date=2023-05-19 |url=https://ria.ru/20221119/grabar-1832613766.html |publisher=[[RIA Novosti]] |first=Tatiana |last=Ryzhkova |date=2022-11-19 |archive-date=29 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329104352/https://ria.ru/20221119/grabar-1832613766.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Игорь Грабарь. К 150-летию со дня рождения |trans-title=Igor Grabar. On the 150th anniversary of his birth |lang=ru |access-date=2023-05-19 |url=http://www.museum.ru/N81306 |website=Музеи России [Museum of Russia] |archive-date=29 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230329104320/http://www.museum.ru/N81306 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

The title describes the composition's essence effectively, as the painting depicts the intense colours of the sky on a cold February day.<ref>{{cite book|title=Энциклопедия пейзажа |trans-title=Encyclopedia of Landscapes |first=Mikhail Ivanovich |last=Tkach |isbn=9785948491363 |publisher=Олма-Пресс Образование |lang=ru |year=2002 |access-date=2023-05-18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vtbGPipW6i4C |via=[[Google Books]] |page=112 }}</ref> Most of the painting's foreground is occupied by a birch tree with branches that are, according to art historian {{ill|Olga Podobedova|ru|Подобедова, Ольга Ильинична|de|Olga Iljinitschna Podobedowa}}, "rhythmically arranged ({{lang|ru|ритмически расположенными}})" and shining either white or golden against the sky background.<ref name=Podobedova_p95/> Grabar himself noted their rhythmic structure in his ''Automonograph''.<ref name="Grabar_p201"/> The top of the tree cannot be seen as it is cut off by the upper edge of the canvas. Art historian {{ill|Natalia Mamontova|ru|Мамонтова, Наталья Николаевна}} compared the branches to "wings" and observed that the red crowns of the trees are genuinely impressionistic,<ref name="Mamontova"/> whilst the painting's vertical format (142.6&nbsp;cm × 84.8&nbsp;cm or 56.1&nbsp;in × 33.4&nbsp;in)<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Журнал "Третьяковская галерея" [Tretyakov Gallery Magazine] |location=Moscow |publisher=Государственная Третьяковская галерея ([[Tretyakov Gallery]]) |year=2022 |page=13 |issn=1729-7621 |lang=ru |volume=3 |issue=76 |title=«Мне нужно только искусство, искусство и больше ничего» Выставка Игоря Грабаря к 150-летию со дня рождения |trans-title='I need only art, art and nothing else' Igor Grabar exhibition for the 150th anniversary of his birth |first=Ольга |last=Атрощенко |url=https://www.tg-m.ru/articles/3-2022-76/mne-nuzhno-tolko-iskusstvo-iskusstvo-i-bolshe-nichego-vystavka-igorya-grabarya |access-date=2023-09-21 |archive-date=2023-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230509142745/https://www.tg-m.ru/articles/3-2022-76/mne-nuzhno-tolko-iskusstvo-iskusstvo-i-bolshe-nichego-vystavka-igorya-grabarya |url-status=live}}</ref> heightens the plasticity of the birch and gives prominence to "the infinity of the azure space ({{lang|ru|бесконечность лазурного пространства}})".<ref name="Mamontova">{{cite book |title=Игорь Грабарь |trans-title=Igor Grabar |last=Mamontova |first=Natalia |url=https://libking.ru/books/nonf-/nonf-biography/1111265-6-natalya-mamontova-igor-grabar.html |access-date=2023-05-17 |location=Moscow |publisher=Белый город |isbn=5-7793-0359-2 |language=ru |pages=18–21 |year=2001 |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719043436/https://libking.ru/books/nonf-/nonf-biography/1111265-6-natalya-mamontova-igor-grabar.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Behind are other, thinner birches, and on the horizon is a birch forest streaked with light in some distance. The snow in the foreground shows the shadows of the trees behind the viewer.<ref name=Podobedova_p95>{{cite book |title=Игорь Эммануилович Грабарь |trans-title=Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar |first=Olga Ilyinichna |last=Podobedova |page=95 |year=1964 |oclc=490504892 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U9FWAAAAMAAJ |access-date=2023-05-17 |via=[[Google Books]] |publisher=Советский художник |language=ru |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719043430/https://books.google.com/books?id=U9FWAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The painting was presented to the public at the second exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists,<ref name="Lapshin_p48">{{cite book|title=Союз русских художников |trans-title=Union of Russian Artists |first=Vladimir Pavlovich |last=Lapshin |lang=ru |access-date=2023-05-19 |url=https://archive.org/details/1974_20220502 |year=1974 |page=48 |publisher=Художник РСФСР |via=[[Internet Archive]] }}</ref> which opened on 31 December 1904 in [[Saint Petersburg]] and then moved to Moscow in February&nbsp;1905.<ref name="Lapshin_p46">{{cite book|title=Союз русских художников |trans-title=Union of Russian Artists |first=Vladimir Pavlovich |last=Lapshin |lang=ru |access-date=2023-05-19 |url=https://archive.org/details/1974_20220502 |year=1974 |page=46 |publisher=Художник РСФСР |via=[[Internet Archive]] }}</ref> In 1905, ''February Azure'' was purchased from Grabar by the [[Tretyakov Gallery]] in Moscow after a unanimous decision of the museum's board of directors.<ref name="Grabar_letters">{{cite book|title=Письма 1891–1917 |trans-title=Letters 1891–1917 |last=Grabar |first=Igor Emmanuilovich |author-link=Igor Grabar |url=https://archive.org/details/1891-1917.-.-1974 |language=ru |access-date=2023-05-19 |page=161 |via=[[Internet Archive]] |publisher=Наука |year=1974 |location=Moscow |quote=Совет ТретьяRовскои галереи единогласно купил у меня «Февральскую лазурь»}}</ref> Grabar wrote in his ''Automonograph'' that, although ''March Snow'' (Мартовский снег, 1904) seemed more popular among other artists than any other work he produced during his early years, he felt that ''February Azure'' was more significant and integral because it was a sum of several different, lengthy observations and, in a sense, a synthesis of them. He believed that ''February Azure'' opened up a path Russian art had not explored until then.<ref name="Grabar_automono_p6">{{cite web |title=Автомонография Игоря Грабаря стр.6 |trans-title=Igor Grabar's Automonograph p.6 |last=Grabar |first=Igor Emmanuilovich |author-link=Igor Grabar |url=http://igor-grabar.ru/monografia-moskva6.php |language=ru |website=igor-grabar.ru |access-date=2023-05-18 |archive-date=15 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220815200009/http://igor-grabar.ru/monografia-moskva6.php |url-status=live }}</ref>

==See also ==
* {{annotated link|Mir iskusstva|''Mir iskusstva''}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{Commons-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1904 paintings]]
[[Category:Landscape paintings]]
[[Category:Plants in art]]
[[Category:Post-impressionist paintings]]
[[Category:Russian paintings]]
[[Category:Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery]]