It was November – the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines (Anne of Green Gables)

“It was November – the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. Anne roamed through the pineland alleys in the park and, as she said, let that great sweeping wind blow the fogs out of her soul.”

(L.M.Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables)

Arkhip Kuindzhi, Sunset in the Steppes by the Sea, 1908

L.M.Montgomery’s wonderful novel “Anne of Green Gables” is one of my all time favourites. The novel revolves around a chatty, vivacious and imaginative eleven year old redhead freckled orphan girl who is adopted by two elderly siblings Matthew and Marilla and comes to live in the fictional town of Avonlea on the Prince Edward Island, Canada. The much-loved children’s classic is set in the late nineteenth century but was first published in 1908. These days I was remembering a passage from the book, quoted above, in which Montgomery describes the month of November and the things in nature that she associates with it; beatiful things, poetic things. The way Anne always finds joy and magic in all seasons is truly inspiring. The drab, grey days of late autumn, or at least that is how I perceived them, are described so beautifully in the novel. November – a month of parting birds and crimsons sunsets ahh… Now, how poetic is that!? So, earlier this year I had written a post on the paintings that I connect with the scenes from the novel and this post I wanted to present a little overview of the paintings that, to me, serve as a visual companion to the way Montgomery describes November.

The first is the “Crimson Sunsets” for which I have chosen this stunning sunset painting by Arkhip Kuinzdhi, a Russian painter of Greek desecent. What I love the most about this painting is how soft yet so clearly defined the different colours of the sky are: yellow, orange, red, purple, and even blue. The sun is red as well. The sheer intensity of the colours of the sunset are just blinding, overpowering. Soon a veil of night will cover the landscape, but this precious moment of ecstasy of colours is captuerd by Kuinzdhi.

Aleksey Savrasov, Evening Migration of Birds, 1874

For the “Parting Birds” I chose Aleksey Savrasov’s painting “Evening Migration of Birds”; an incredibly dreamy vertical landscape which shows a meadow and a small hints of a small town in the distance. Still, the majority of the canvas and the beauty of the painting goes to the sky which is changing colours; in the upper part it is still blue, but as our eye descends it starts becoming more and more rosy, more and more dreamy, as the dusk is taking over. The birds are flying away, not to return for a long time…

Gustave Courbet, Autumn Sea, 1867

The “Sad Hymns of the Sea” are represented by a painting I absolutely love this autumn and it is Gustave Courbet’s “Autumn Sea” which briliantly captures the wild dance of the waves, a restless, turbulent, dark sea… The white foam as it hits the rocks on the shore is captured so realistically that I can hear the wave in my mind and feel their coldness. The sad hymns of the sea because there is no sun anymore to caress it, to kiss it, to cover it in gold hues. The sky, in taupe and lilac, is impossibly dreamy.

Emily Carr, Path Among Pines, c. 1930

For the final beautiful thing about November, the “Passionate Wind-Songs in the Pines” I couldn’t decide whether to include Emily Carr’s painting “Path Among Pines”, painted in 1930, or Gustav Klimt’s “Pine Forest” from 1901. Carr was a Canadian painter which goes well with the setting of the novel being in Canada because then I think these pine woods could have been similar to those Anne would stroll around in. Carr’s pine woods seem lively and I love the touches of blue on the pine trees as well. On the other hand, Klimt’s pine forest has that quiet, sombre stillness that I connect with late autumn. It seems to me a place where “almost the faintest whisper would be shrill”, to quote Tennessee Williams’ poem “We Have Not Long to Love”.

Gustav Klimt, Pine Forest II, 1901