Mikhail V. Nesterov
the Fox
circa 1914
The light tickling of colours drifting through the air of this scene denote the time of day as indefinite, undefined. It may be mid-morning, early afternoon or, unusual but true, the last rays of fading sun basking down just after a great late evening storm. This sense of the unknown, of what exact hour it might be in which these four subjects exist, offers to the scene an ethereal mood - one that veils the trees, the slow underwater tide and even the individual tufts of dewy, cold grass or the mens’ white whiskers in a fairytale-like aura. One might even deem the air as somewhat misty, veiling further the subjects in a standstill; in a wispy capsule of painted time.
Like ever-curious children, the men sit and peer steadily around at their surroundings in such a way that suggests their affection for all that grows and evolves naturally; that which ceaselessly strives against the many turns and currents of humankind; indifferent and unaffected by its moods. Their backs to a stone dwelling (perhaps the far-winged turret of a small church), the three sages sit on the edge of this scene as though representing a ‘side’, the other of which is embodied by the creature facing them, the tip-toeing fox, and by the clustered mesh of mossy trunks. One may gather that, from this, there occurs a welcomed confrontation of the tamed and untamed sides of nature (though which is which?), and that the stretch of middle ground (in which a tree stump harmlessly squats as though a judge) symbolises the platform on which an inevitable examination will at some point be held. For now, there is but a single unseen string of tension hanging somewhere along the horizon - one that, in Nesterov’s perspective, is to be both playful and tumultuous in effect.
Like ever-curious children, the men sit and peer steadily around at their surroundings in such a way that suggests their affection for all that grows and evolves naturally; that which ceaselessly strives against the many turns and currents of humankind; indifferent and unaffected by its moods. Their backs to a stone dwelling (perhaps the far-winged turret of a small church), the three sages sit on the edge of this scene as though representing a ‘side’, the other of which is embodied by the creature facing them, the tip-toeing fox, and by the clustered mesh of mossy trunks. One may gather that, from this, there occurs a welcomed confrontation of the tamed and untamed sides of nature (though which is which?), and that the stretch of middle ground (in which a tree stump harmlessly squats as though a judge) symbolises the platform on which an inevitable examination will at some point be held. For now, there is but a single unseen string of tension hanging somewhere along the horizon - one that, in Nesterov’s perspective, is to be both playful and tumultuous in effect.
