Forever Russia

A ruined brick church stands on a grassy hillside, its dome and bell tower stripped of plaster and roofing. A small wooden barn sits beside it, autumn-colored hills and a band of blue water stretch behind, with more wooden houses on the far bank. In the foreground, a lone man in dark clothing stands looking toward the ruin, near a wooden fence and stacks of pale hay.

A heavy, roiling sky of gray and white clouds dominates the canvas, broken by a shaft of pale light over the ruin, while the hillside is painted in warm ochre and rose with the autumn forest glowing orange beyond. Thick, textured brushwork builds the clouds and grass, and the solitary watching figure lends the abandoned church a somber, elegiac mood.