Pyrenees landscape

Pyrenees Landscape was painted on set, its composition is lively, asymmetrical but perfectly balanced, possessed of fragmentation reflecting the latest trends in landscape-painting of late 19th century. In the foreground on the right, painted against the backdrop of a far-away mountain, there is an old leafless tree, most of its branches cut off by the edge of the painting. On the left, a dark and shadowy line of stonework draws the beholder’s eye deeper towards the sunlit brick houses, their diminishing line descending until it becomes hidden behind the dark trunk of a tree. This harmony of the typically southern, modest and even somewhat harsh architectural forms and nature is portrayed through a balance of criss-crossing lines and well-lit and shadowy areas.

Staffage, a typical feature of Alchimowicz’s landscapes, is present here as well, with a tiny rider shape painted on a rock next to a house, and two more little shapes barely visible by an open window inside the building. These shapes both liven up the view and emphasise the idea of the landscape: the harmony between the great and eternal nature and a cultured landscape inhabited by men. The bright, sunshiny landscape exquisitely conveys the mood of a warm and clear early spring day that is full of premonition of a summer to come.