MWW Artwork of the Day (4/20/21) Mikhail Vrubel (Russian, 1856–1910) Demon Seated (1890) Oil on canvas, 114 x 211 cm. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
"Demon Seated" depicts the figure of the Demon sitting atop a mountain. There is tension in his muscles and interlocked fingers which sharply contrasts with the slumped over body and melancholy expression of his face. He appears passive and introverted yet proud, solitary, and sensitive. He is the antithesis of the feminine, yet possesses feminine attributes in the long hair, soft face, and pouty mouth. His eyes are filled with a longing for love in a cold and alienated world. Vrubel described this Demon as “a spirit uniting in itself masculine and feminine qualities...a spirit, not so much evil as suffering and sorrowing, but in all that a powerful spirit...a majestic spirit”. In his androgyny, the Demon is a perfect fusion of the soul’s earthly and heavenly elements. The evening setting amidst an ethereal landscape that is distant and disengaged assists in the feelings of sadness and solitude. There is the sense of an uneasy equilibrium between the wistful landscape and the forlorn expression that suggests places and events are but a haze to the immortal soul that is condemned.
