Saryan’s artistic development and language of colour
Martiros Saryan was born in 1880 in Nor Nakhichevan, in an Armenian environment on the banks of the Don, in the present-day Rostov region. His ancestors were connected to Ani, and the family history carried the memory of the migration and resettlement of Armenians. Saryan’s childhood years, his direct contact with nature, and the impressions of fields, sun, flowers, living light, and rich colors later became one of the fundamental sources of his art. Biographical materials from the Saryan House-Museum emphasize that it was this childhood perception of nature that shaped the exceptional significance of light and pure color in his work.
In 1897, Saryan was admitted to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. He studied in the environment of the Russian art school, familiarized himself with classical academic training and the principles of portrait and landscape construction, but very soon realized that he needed not only to describe the visible world but also to find a pictorial language that could express inner feeling, memory, and the image of his homeland. Saryan’s student and early works still retained the soft, shadowy, gray-brown, and greenish tonal system characteristic of late 19th-century painting, but his visits to Armenia became a turning point for him.
In this period, Saryan worked mainly in the genres of portrait and landscape. He depicted family members, his native environment, the nature of Sambek, and Armenian rural scenes. In these works, the influence of the academic school is still noticeable; forms are constructed relatively calmly, the color system is restrained, and light and shadow are worked out in a classical manner. However, even in this period, Saryan’s interest in character, environment, and mood—rather than just external likeness—is evident.
Important works from this period include Portrait of the Artist’s Sister Taguhi, Portrait of the Artist’s Mother, Portrait of Sandukht, Makravank, In an Armenian Village, Aragats, and other works.
Between 1903 and 1909, a sharp change occurred in Saryan’s art. He moved away from the boundaries of academic naturalism and began working toward freer, symbolic, fairy-tale, and dreamlike images. This period is also connected to Russian symbolism, the "Blue Rose" art circle, and eastern fairy-tale imagery.
From 1910 to 1913, Saryan traveled to Constantinople, Egypt, and Persia. These trips had a great influence on his art. For Saryan, the East was not just an exotic theme; it was a world of color, light, movement, markets, streets, people, and ancient civilizations. In his eastern works, color relationships become bolder, surfaces more decorative, and compositions clearer and stronger.
In works featuring themes of Constantinople, Egypt, and Persia, Saryan used simplified forms, broad color surfaces, and strong solar contrasts. For him, an eastern city is a living, polyphonic, sometimes dense and vibrant environment. Notable works from this period include Constantinople Dogs, Street: Constantinople, Noon Street: Constantinople, Persian Woman, Egyptian Masks, Desert: Egypt, Palm Tree: Egypt, Street in Cairo, Persia, In the Suburbs of Tehran, Armenian Woman with a Saz, and others.
Since the 1920s, Armenia has again been at the center of Saryan’s work. He traveled to different parts of Armenia, painted nature in the open air, and studied the real appearance of mountains, valleys, gardens, and rural life. Materials from the Saryan House-Museum note that his working method changed during this period; he sought to convey the real, tangible side of nature and the people's life, which led to the development of a fast, "etude-like," and lively painting style.
Works from this period include Aragats, Aragats and Mount Ara, Gardens and Aragats, Mountains, Portrait of Yeghishe Charents, Lusik Saryan: Triple Portrait, Saryan’s House, Blooming Trees, the graphic work Ararat, as well as sketches for the Armenian theater curtain.
Saryan settled in Yerevan in 1921 and worked in Paris in 1926–1928. Many Paris works were lost in a shipboard fire on his return journey. The number of surviving paintings is therefore an unreliable measure of how much he produced in those years.
Between 1941 and 1968, still lifes, portraits, and Armenian landscapes occupied a special place in Saryan’s art. During the war years, his art also took on the significance of moral resistance. Materials from the Saryan House-Museum note that the artist’s "weapons" at that time were his brush, palette, and pencil, and in connection with the victory and his son’s return, he created one of his greatest still-life works: Flowers for the Armenian Warriors Who Fought in the Great Patriotic War.
Notable works from this period include Autumn Still Life, Self-Portrait: Three Ages, Blooming Apricot, Gorge of the Azat River, Ararat and the Charents Arch, Fog over the Ararat Plain, Ashnak Village, Portrait of Viktor Ambartsumian, Ararat, Amberd, Evening: Ararat, Portrait of Ilya Ehrenburg, and other works.
In Saryan’s canvases, light is not just a source of illumination but a vital principle. His sun burns, reveals forms, clarifies the outlines of mountains and trees, and intensifies the sonority of colors. For this reason, in Saryan’s landscapes, mountains, villages, gardens, flowers, and fruits seem not like accidental scenes but like festive affirmations of life.
Saryan’s color is often conventional but never accidental. He could depict a mountain with blue, the earth with golden hues, trees with saturated green or orange, yet this conventionality served not to escape reality but to reveal the inner power of reality. His color has a musical resonance; every color is in its place, and every color relationship builds a general rhythm.
Saryan’s still lifes also have special significance. Flowers, fruits, jugs, pitchers, carpets, and eastern items become not household objects for him but signs of color richness and the fullness of life. In Saryan’s still lifes, objects are often arranged in a way that creates a festive, almost ritualistic environment. These are condensed expressions of Armenian and eastern color culture.
In portraits, Saryan maintains the same pictorial principle; he is interested not only in a person’s appearance but in their inner character. In portraits of Yeghishe Charents, Viktor Ambartsumian, Avetik Isahakyan, Anna Akhmatova, Ilya Ehrenburg, and other figures, Saryan tried to reveal the image of human thought, character, and creative power.
Compare Green Gorge and Fruits in the gallery. In each painting, find two neighbouring colours that catch your eye. What makes one appear brighter?