Calm Before the Storm

The painting’s story and details

An immense bright cloud hangs above almost motionless water. This version of Calm Before the Storm belongs to the Zimmerli Art Museum in the United States and is dated 1889–1890. Dubovskoy returned to the subject in several paintings. He was interested in the brief interval before a storm, when the water remains calm while the sky is already changing.

The rounded pale projections of the cloud stretch across almost the entire painting. Towards its base, white turns into bluish shadow and then an almost black band. These transitions give the cloud density and weight. Its luminous surface does not indicate fair weather. An illuminated section of a storm cloud can remain bright against a darkening sky; the painting depends on this uneven light.

A low shore extends into the water from the left and soon disappears into darkness. Its outline is much quieter than the rounded masses above it. Land occupies little space between sky and reflection. There is no convenient road into the distance or sequence of meticulously described objects. Broad bands establish the principal relationships: a bright cloud, a dark shore and an extensive surface of water.

Small buildings on the left shore are almost lost from view. They give the cloud an enormous scale. Dubovskoy explained the subject of Calm Before the Storm through his own sense of human smallness before approaching natural forces. A specific proportion conveys that idea here. Habitation occupies a narrow dark edge beneath the great expanse of illuminated sky. The buildings supply a measure for a natural formation whose size would otherwise be difficult to judge.

The water retains a pale reflection of the cloud. It is softer and less distinct than the cloud itself, crossed by small horizontal traces of ripples. Large waves have yet to form. This difference between the quiet surface and the heavy sky defines the chosen moment. The contrasting textures of two large areas of canvas make an approaching change the landscape’s subject.

On the right, a narrow strip of brownish-grey sky remains below the cloud. It separates cloud from water and runs towards the horizon. Its warmth beside cool blue shadows intensifies the unusual lighting. The dark horizon stays level beneath the cloud’s piled-up projections. Relationships between colours convey an experience of weather, directed by the title towards the interval before a storm.

In 1890, Calm Before the Storm brought Dubovskoy considerable success at a Wanderers exhibition. Alexander III bought the painting shown there, which now belongs to the Russian Museum. This is a different canvas, so that imperial purchase does not form part of its provenance. The subject’s success demonstrates the independent place landscape had gained in exhibition culture. Conditions in nature could command attention without a historical event or a recognisable hero.