The mystery of centuries

On the right, a tall, robed figure with a lined, bearded face and richly textured, ornamented garments stands half-hidden among tree trunks, glowing with warm golden light against the shadowed foliage. To the left, the scene opens onto a calm lake with small boats and a low shoreline, framed by pale trunks and sky. Autumn-toned undergrowth, dense with dabs of yellow and orange, fills the foreground.

The palette shifts from cool greys, blues and whites in the sky and water to hot ochre, gold and brown in the standing figure and foreground foliage, giving a strong sense of contained inner light. Paint is worked in dense, broken strokes that read almost abstractly up close, resolving into form only at a distance. The pairing of an open, serene landscape with a brooding, half-hidden presence lends the picture an unsettled, folkloric mystery.