Konstantin Gorbatov - Windmills [1911]

Konstantin Gorbatov - Windmills [1911], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Painted just before his sojourn to Italy in 1912 and 1913, Windmills has a striking form and presence rarely seen in Konstantin Gorbatov’s works, although with all his familiar textures. Gorbatov’s treatment of the Russian landscape has been described as ‘breathing substance into the everyday’. Here these simple windmills are brought to life; they are depicted like a caravan of ancient Siberian Mammoths, lumbering across the landscape, as humble and historic as the peasant economy that feeds them. Using a strong but subtle palette, the monumentality of both the landscape and the windmills here is suffused with the grandeur of this life-long ideal. 

[Charcoal and gouache on paper, 46.6 x 49.8 cm]