The Arrival of Spring; Two Roads

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The Arrival of Spring; Two Roads

Artist Maria Vasilievna Iakunchikova-Veber (Russian, 1870-1902)

Date1896

DimensionsPainting: 12 5/8 × 13 1/2 in. (32.1 × 34.3 cm)
Frame: 17 3/8 × 18 3/4 × 1 3/8 in. (44.1 × 47.6 × 3.5 cm)

MediumOil on carved wood panel.

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2005.303

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 03

Collections

Paintings

Published ReferencesMir iskusstva, 1904, no. 3, p. 88, ill.

The Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, no. 45, Dec. 1923, repr. (Sitter incorrectly given as General William T. Sherman; John Sherman, younger brother of General William T. Sherman).

Kiselev, M., Maria Iakunchikova, Moscow, 1979, pp. 89, 167, pl. 37.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 64, pl. 55.

Nashe Nasledie, Moscow, no. 54, 2000, p. 3. (periodical, according to Christie's).

Exhibition HistoryMoscow, Maria Vasil'evna Iakunchikova's Posthumous Exhibition, 1905, p. 9, no. 111 (as Spring comes).

Paris, Salon d'Automne, Exposition de l'Art Russe, 1906, p. 137, no. 712.

Geneva, Musée Rath, L'exposition de quelques oeuvres de Marie Weber-Iakunchikoff et de Vera Woulff, 1910, no. 1, as 'Two roads'.

Label TextRussian artist Maria Iakunchikova (pronounced Yah-koonch-ee-KOH-va) often combined applied arts with fine arts, as with her unusual technique of carving a wood panel—sometimes by use of heat, or pyrography—and then painting it, as with The Arrival of Spring. More deeply and fluidly carved, the left side of the composition creates a sense of energy and motion in comparison to the relatively flat surface of the right side. This emphasizes the contrast between the two halves of the image: the train speeding towards us on the left, representing the rapid pace of technology and modernity in the late 19th century; and the deserted dirt road on the right leading into the painting. The juxtaposition speaks to Iakunchikova’s ambivalence towards the contradictions between nature and technology, Russia and Europe, and tradition and modernity. The dynamic line of the wall separating the two roads underscores these dualities.