The Rooks Have Come Back, Alexei Savrasov

Alexei Kondratyevich Savrasow was a Russian landscape painter and creator of the lyrical landscape style. He was born in 1830 in Moscow, Russia. Savrasov started to draw when he was a child. His father wanted him to engage in business but, instead of this, in 1844, he went to Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture.

         We can see in Savrasov’s works his love of Russia. They show us the beauty of a spring grey day, dirty Russian roads, and wet fields. Artist’s apprentice, Isaac Levitan, told about his teacher:

“Lyricism in the painting of the landscape and boundless love for his native land appeared with Savrasov <...> and this his undoubted merit will never be forgotten in the field of Russian art.”

‘The Rooks Have Come Back’ was painted in March 1871. Its size is 62x48.5 cm. In summer 1871 this painting was bought by Pavel Tretyakov, a Russian collector.

In this painting, we can see the rooks that have come back and are making nests. It’s a symbol of the return of life. The metaphor of the resurrection is also the willow that hid behind their trunks: with its branches, analogous to palm branches in a cold climate, in Russia, they traditionally met Palm Sunday.

Savrasov always paid attention to every detail in nature. We can see it in the snow in this painting. There are many different shades of snow – dark, lilac, pale-lilac, blue, pink, yellow, gold. The church in the painting is an Orthodox Church of the Resurrection in the Molvitino village which was built in XVII century. With artist’s characteristic realism in the approach to the depiction of objects, Savrasov painted it with peeling plaster and exposed brickwork.

‘The Rooks Have Come Back’ is the most famous Savrasov’s work. This painting is considered as an important step in the development of the Russian landscape painting. Now we can see this work in The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.