In the painting "Early Spring. High Water", the most insignificant of motifs, the tree with the bare boughs bent into small islands of melted water, is turned by Sarasov’s brush into a heartfelt image of a nature that is beginning to come back to life, yet one that is still entirely cold. The artist’s admiration for Mother Nature can be felt in the expressive manner of his painting, how variety in paint differentiates the sky that casts green and pink reflections upon the water, and how delicately the woods melting into the haze and the outlines of the bank in the distance are conveyed.

Savrasov Alexei

Savrasov, Alexei Kondratievich (1830, Moscow — 1897, Moscow)
Painter, graphic artist, teacher, landscapist. Studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1848–1854). Awarded the title of painter at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1850). Academician of painting (1854). Contributed to exhibitions (from 1852). Taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1857–1882).