Nightingale Night

Location

Country: Other
City: other locations abroad

The orange glow of the moon reflected in the water lights up this romantic image of a river at night. A velvety purple sky is in rich contrast to the dense greens of the vegetation: the more you study this dark landscape the more apparent just how many tones of green there are. The idea that this forest and scrubland could be home to the nightingale – or night songstress – and that we could be listening to its plaintive song, enhances the poetic atmosphere that the artist, Lydia Brodskaya, has created.

This painting’s soft brushwork, tranquil mood and honest approach to nature are reminiscent of the French Barbizon School (c. 1830–1870) of painters. Inspired by rural scenes and named after the village of Barbizon near Fontainebleau Forest where the artists gathered, the leading members of the school were Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot and Jean-François Millet.

Nightingale Night was presented by Khrushchev & Marshal Bulganin to the Lord President of the Privy Council on their visit to Britain in 1956.

Places

Russia

Subjects

landscape C20th, grass, tree, night, moon, river, path

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Lydia Isaakovna Brodskaya (1910 - 1991)

Title

Nightingale Night

Date

1954

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

height: 74.00 cm, width: 107.00 cm

Acquisition

Presented by Nikita Khruschev and Marshal Nikolai Bulganin, 1956

Inscription

verso (in Russian): L Brodskaya / "Nightingale Night" / 167 x 73 / 1954

Provenance

Presented by Nikita Khruschev and Marshal Nikolai Bulganin to the Lord President of the Council on their visit to Britain, 1956

GAC number

7957