Igor Grabar’s rural landscape “March Snow” depicts a spring, but still winter-cold day in a small village. In the foreground, a young girl is rushing to fetch water, carrying a rocker with two buckets on one shoulder. Despite the fact that it’s March outside, winter is in no hurry to give up positions – the girl is dressed warmly enough: a quilted jacket, a skirt to the floor, a scarf on her head.
In addition to the girl, the picture shows several huts, trees, on which there is no longer any snow and they are ready to throw off the shackles of winter. But the earth is still wrapped in a layer of snow, and it will not be long before it wakes up from a cold sleep. Despite the cold, the sun begins to warm up in spring, the snow becomes loose and spongy and has almost completely melted on the path. The path leads into the distance, the girl hurrying for water has a long way to go. It will soon begin to grow dark, the trees cast long bluish shadows on the melting snow.
Igor Grabar managed to catch and convey that elusive moment of transition from daylight to evening in the painting “March Snow”. There is a ringing silence in the air, it seems that you can hear the creak of snow under the feet of a girl walking with buckets for water. The picture was painted very lightly and airily, so the artist wanted to convey the still invisible, subtle onset of spring. In every detail of this rural landscape, one can see Igor Grabar’s love for the Russian countryside and rural nature.
Year of painting: 1904.
Dimensions of the painting: 80 x 62 cm.
Material: canvas.
Writing technique: oil.
Genre: landscape.
Style: impressionism.
Gallery: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.