1890
oil on canvas
116,5 х 213,8

The painting is the first significant work of Russian symbolism to define its central theme: the creative artist's quest for supreme beauty. The artist creates an image in line with the spiritual quest of his time. He states that his hero "is a spirit, but a spirit that is not so much vicious as suffering and melancholic, but for all that, a spirit that is majestic and power-hungry". Demon's image is full of contradictions: a spiritual face and mighty body. The gesture of clasped strong hands is like the effort of breaking chains. The hero is lost in melancholic contemplation of the dying colours of sunset. His powerful figure feels cramped in the horizontal format of the composition. But Demon's sadness is not sterile. The world around him emerges in a new transformed state. The artist portrays the metamorphosis of shapes, with flowers appearing as crystals as a result. Working with a palette-knife (a thin steel plate), Vrubel seems to combine the techniques of a painter and a sculptor, which results in creation of shapes to resemble faceted stones. This gives rise to monumental technique to imitate mosaic. The theme of Demon, an epitome of eternal struggle of anguished spirit, became central to the artist's work.

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