The Beginning of Spring

Painted late in Savrasov's life in 1888, "The Beginning of Spring" revisits the thematic territory that had defined his career — the tender, uncertain moment when Russian winter begins to loosen its hold. By the 1880s Savrasov's personal circumstances had deteriorated significantly: alcoholism had damaged his health and professional standing, and he had lost the Moscow School teaching position he had held for years. Yet his commitment to observing the seasonal changes of the Russian countryside never wavered, and works from this period show him returning repeatedly to the spring landscape as a subject of almost compulsive importance. The painting in the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts shows the characteristic hallmarks of his mature style: a horizontal format, a pale and luminous sky, bare deciduous trees against soft grey light, and the subtle drama of snow yielding to mud and new growth. The work belongs to a body of late paintings that were largely overlooked by critics during his lifetime but later reassessed as deeply authentic records of the Russian natural year.

The handling shows Savrasov's late manner — looser and more spontaneous than his earlier work, with visible brushwork in the sky and ground that captures light rather than describing surface. The colour range is restricted to greys, pale yellows, and the brownish ochres of winter mud, with only faint hints of warmth suggesting imminent growth.