The "boy genius", as he was called in the artistic circles of Russia, had no time to enjoy his popularity – he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and had to leave St. Petersburg forever. He moved to Crimea. The Society for Promotion of Artists sponsored his stay there, but he was obliged to pay with his paintings.
Vasilyev could not get used to the new scenery. The years spent in Yalta far from both the artistic milieu of St. Petersburg and the more familiar scenery of central Russia were most fruitful, though very complicated years of Vasilyev's life. During that period he produced a number of very important paintings, drawings, and sepias, some of these based on entirely new methods.
The adjustment to the new environment was difficult, therefore Vasilyev decided to rely on his memory and the sketches he had made in previous years and continue his work on Russian landscapes. The lasting memories of dawn over moors that had fascinated him once and forever materialized in a variety of works characterized by a new approach to the motif.
The series began with the Wet Meadow (1872) whose composition is based on a generalized central Russian landscape, a vast plain, open spaces, trees wet after a rain, and the sky with clouds. The light, as if permeated with moisture, enhances the effect.
Alexander Pushkin.
Storm-cloud
1835.
O storm-cloud, the tempest's survival, alone
Like mad do you rush o'er the heavenly dome;
Alone do you cast as you drift on your way
A dark, brooding shade on the jubilant day.
A short while ago you lay cloaking the sky,
And great forks of lightning flared round you on high.
You thundered and roared over forest and plain
And fed thirsting earth with a bounty of rain.
Enough! Make you haste! Do not tarry... Begone!
The earth is refreshed, and the rain-storm has flown,
And tame though the wind is, it stubbornly tries
To make you desert the now radiant skies.
Translated by Irina Zheleznova
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