How to write an essay based on the painting "The Rooks Have Arrived" by A.K. Savrasov

In the middle and senior levels of education at school, one of the options for creative work is the description of the picture. Students of the sixth or seventh grades must write an essay based on the painting "The Rooks Have Arrived" by Alexei Savrasov.

Goals and objectives of essays on the picture

Although the plot is understandable at first glance, it is not so easy to describe this picture. The student must see the deep meaning behind the simplicity of the plot. Why are such creative tasks given? The composition helps to form a written language, learn how to correctly express thoughts on a particular topic, see and understand the content of the plot, and describe what you see in words. When describing a landscape, logic develops, since one must learn to distinguish between the main and the secondary, to see the details and describe according to the plan.

A little about the artist

Alexey Savrasov is a Russian artist famous for his landscapes. One of his most famous works is the painting "The Rooks Have Arrived". Savrasov worked on it in 1871. The sketches were written by him when he traveled to the village of Molitvino, Kostroma region. The artist indicated the place of his work in the picture in the lower left corner. Perhaps the first ideas were conceived by him in the vicinity of Yaroslavl, shortly before the trip to Molitvino. Aleksey Savrasov finished the picture in Yaroslavl, finishing the finishing touches in Moscow.

Exhibitions and reviews

In the same year, the painting was bought by Pavel Tretyakov, the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery and a collector. Soon it was exhibited in the Moscow Society, and then at the exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions in St. Petersburg. The landscape received many admiring reviews. Artists and critics said that this is one of the most beautiful landscapes and Savrasov's best painting. Despite the simplicity of the plot, the soul of the artist, who cherishes the views of Russian nature, is felt in the picture. But not only critics and artists appreciated the picture. Empress Maria Alexandrovna wished to have a copy in her collection, and the artist painted another one for her. And in 1872, it was she who exhibited at the World Exhibition in Austria.

The season in the picture

Before starting work on an essay based on Savrasov's painting "The Rooks Have Arrived", consider the landscape itself. The painting depicts a very early spring, when the sun was just beginning to warm up, the snow was thawing and exposing black bushes and tree trunks that were tired during the winter. Puddles began to gather under the sun, and the first symbol of spring and nascent life here were rooks, which cannot be immediately seen in the picture.

Painting composition

So, let's start writing. Description of the painting "Rooks have arrived" let's start with the composition. Let's consider it carefully. The backyard of the church was taken for the image. Immediately striking is a large crooked tree, on the branches of which nests of rooks and the birds themselves are located. A few more birds around the birches. You can understand that spring has come by the thawed patches in the snow. We can notice that the rooks are somewhat larger than in reality. But this seemingly grotesque exaggeration does not spoil the picture at all, but on the contrary, the landscape, thanks to them, seems to breathe in spring. The center of the composition is several birches in the foreground. Along the edges of the picture on the right and left are branches of trees that are not included in the landscape, but thanks to them, the central part is balanced. Sunlight falls from the left side, and the shadows from the birches lie softly on the melted snow. Behind the trees you can see a fence and a wooden church with a bell tower, and then - endless fields with an already overflowing river, and they stretch to the very horizon. This plain gives the picture a sense of infinity and spatiality. To enhance the sense of space, the artist slightly changed the perspective. The foreground looks as if the artist painted the picture while close to the ground. But then the horizon would be lower, although the landscape is in the center of the canvas. The artist's idea was as follows: he wanted to pay attention to the background, to the plain, which plays an important semantic role in the landscape, so it must be described in the composition based on the painting "The Rooks Have Arrived". A. K. Savrasov used this technique not only in this landscape, but also in other works.

Colors and tones

An essay based on the painting "The Rooks Have Arrived" is impossible without a description of the colors, tones and light. The landscape seems to be divided into three horizontal parts. Each of the parts is drawn in its own light and tone. The upper part, which takes up half, depicts a light sky with predominantly cold blue tones. Below, occupying about thirty percent, snow is painted in gray and white.

And in the middle, brown tones predominate. It turns out that the buildings seem to hang in the air among light shades, and this gives a feeling of lightness and airiness. In order for the elements of the picture to merge into a single whole, the artist uses the right angle and composition, as well as the play of light and shadow. In general, the whole composition tends, as it were, upwards, which is achieved by the image of young birch trees reaching for the sky. Savrasov managed to convey sadness from the passing winter and happiness from the coming spring. It was through thawed patches, glimpses of the sky and light tones of snow that this effect was achieved. In the background - sunlit, pinkish and golden, and in front - already loose, melted and grayish snow.

Birds - a symbol of spring in the composition based on the painting "The Rooks Have Arrived"

Let's pay attention to the birds that served as the basis of the plot. The painting is called "The Rooks Have Arrived", and this gives us the key to understanding the painting. Let's try to imagine a landscape without rooks. How will he change? Then the picture will not have the dynamics that we have now. Birds symbolize life. They fly around the birches, around their nests, in which the chicks will hatch. One of the birds on the ground holds a twig in its beak and is about to build a nest. It is the birds that make us feel the arrival of spring, because with their appearance movement begins and life is reborn. So you can finish the essay-reasoning on the painting "The Rooks Have Arrived".