Above Eternal Peace

A closer look

The tiny church, with a single lit window, and the crosses of the graveyard bent by the wind seem fragile and insignificant before the immensity of water and sky. A narrow path leads to the church; across the lake, distant shores fade into the haze. Levitan called the painting a meditation on eternity: human life and its brief existence set against the eternal indifference of nature. He painted it on Lake Udomlya in Tver province, combining the view with a church he had sketched elsewhere.