Old Oak

The artist and Soviet revolutionary Lev Kamenev is known primarily for being a Bolshevik and a supporter of the February revolution. He is also known for being one of the early members of the Peredvizhniki or the Society for Travelling Art exhibitions. He was one of the founders along with artists such as Vasily Perov. His career as an artist was very short-lived as he preferred to be an activist rather than a painter. In 1854, he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where he trained under the mentorship of the artist Alexander Savrasov. He enjoyed depicting scenes of landscapes and his portfolio contains quite a lot of the Russian rural countryside from the perspectives of different seasons. He was also very clearly fond of painting trees and "Old Oak" is an example of his love of trees. The painting shows a giant old oak tree in spring, with lush green foliage on the branches. Under its branches sits a lone man upon a small slope next to a little green pond. The use of the colour green in its various hues and shades makes this painting almost monochrome if it weren't for the mastery of colour theory that allows the observer to see the shifting yellow lights through the trees in this small glade and the yellow coat the man is wearing. The beauty of this painting is the fact that the oak tree is the main focus and one of the characters in the painting. The presence of the man is miniscule compared to the might of the grand old tree. There is a sense of poetry in the way the man finds solace in this quiet place away from civilization.