As many Soviet artists of the late 1940s — 1950s, A. S. Barkhatkou often conveyed the sense of calm and enjoyment of peaceful life in his works. It is felt everywhere: in landscapes, portraits and subject compositions. This lyrical and poetical mood fully feels in one of his most celebrated paintings of that time — The First Song (1957). In 1953, an expressive cityscape I. V. Stalin Avenue was completed. The artist illustrated the city rebuilt from the ruins with a complete light building in the background on the right and one more building in scaffolding on the other side. The painting is honest and sincere, it seems to bring the breath of time: we see a trolleybus, a bus of the 1950s, a “Pobeda” car. The author managed to show joy and confidence that peaceful life was no longer a dream, it was reality. Reviews of todays audience are interesting: “An optimistic and serene painting”, “ft somehow feels cozy, serene and calm because of this painting”. In 1957, Anton Stefanavich Barkhatkou became a member of the BSSR Union of Artists. In the early 1960s, the artist often turned to the genre of lyrical landscape depicting unparallel beauty of the native land. Landscape Spring (1955) shows the very beginning of this season, when the snow still lies but nature lives in 24 anticipation of changes. The charm of the spring awakening is also conveyed in the surprisingly gentle composition Flood (1962), the different mood— quiet and pensive — is in the painting Beginning of Spring (1961). The work Spring on the Nieman (1960) shows a meandering river heading to the background with intensively blue water painted with dynamic dark-bluish strokes and first green leaves on the branches of the upgrowing trees against the blue sky, which tell that nature has come to life and rejoices. The study Lilac was painted in 1964. A multitude of lilac hues against green leaves show special beauty of a lilac bush and seem to bring the smell of flowers. The canvas First Sprouts (1963) shows spring with an already green field, slender birches and the blue sky with white clouds. The tendency for scenic significance is felt there and the author himself calls this work a landscape-painting. Few more such compositions with a generalized image appeared after the trip to the Nieman with a group of Belarusian artists. They are Tree Cutting on the Biarezina (1962) and also Spring on the Nieman (1960), where a river almost free from ice calmly carries its waters and the remaining ice slowly moves on the surface. This painting has peculiar solemnity and width highlighted by a horizontal stripe of the blue sky. In 1954— 1999, A. S. Barkhatkou often visited the Academic Summer Cottage, which is situated in Tver region (earlier, Kalinin region). Nowadays, it is called I. E. Repin Artists Guest House of the Union of Artists of the Russian Federation. Anton Stefanavich told: “I love akademichka (short name for academic’, — translator’s note). Everyone is a teacher and pupil there. Academicians and students alike. All work and learn from each other. Art lives there”2. It was the Academic Summer Cottage, where the painting Midday at the Hay Field (1960) was painted on the base of sketches made in Belarus. This multifigured composition is full of air and light and shows people having rest in a summer day in the shadow of trees after hard work (their prototypes are relatives of Anton Stefanavich: the stepfather, brothers and sisters). Figures smoothly blend into the landscape. The harmonic unity of the life of people and the life of nature is shown there in joyful, uplifting tones. The complex multicolored scheme enhances expressivity of the painting. 2 Карамазаў В. Антон. — Мінск: Про Хрысто, 2006. — С. 16. 25 A personal exhibition of the artist took place in Minsk in 1967. A letter of reference in the personal file of A. S. Barkhatkou belongs to that period. It is signed by the Chairman of the BSSR Union of Artists U. I. Stselmashonak and the Chairman of the Trade Union Committee N. A. Apiyok. It reads: “The main theme of the creative work of Barkhatkou is native Belarus. A subtle and heartfelt lyrical poet, in his best canvases he peers into the life of nature, conveys its elusive nuances in different seasons and times of day. The artist genuinely loves his land”3. The search for new means of coloristic expressivity and painterliness is notable in A. S. Barkhatkou’s works of the second half of the 1960s — 1970s. Canvases created in that period vary in mood, show nature in different seasons. Winter landscapes are of interest, they are poetically melancholic, quiet, with a cloudy sky and the greyish-blue color scheme (First Snow, The Cold Has Come, both 1978), full of mystery (On New Year Eve, 1976), with more intensive color combinations and decorative elements (Hoarfrost, 1968). On the painting A Grey Day in December (1976), nature has fallen asleep and winter silence is depicted with calm colors, with an almost horizontal wide stripe of the river, which surface seems to be frozen, with smooth outlines of trees on the other bank. Summer nature is also represented in the works of the landscape artist in a convincing and diverse manner. There is a sense of alertness and anxious anticipation in the landscape Before the Storm (1969). Fabulous charm is in the painting The Last Ray (1970) and in the canvas On Senezh Lake (1964), which is particularly colorful. The artist was also attracted by changeable nature conditions, which brought the sense of serenity and freshness (After the Rain, 1976). Surely, Anton Stefanavich did not overlook autumn nature. In the work Autumn Evening (1977), the last rays of the sun illuminate trees with somewhat magical light bringing disturbing mystery to the scene. The mood of alert expectation of changes and the quick coming of cold is shown on the canvas Cold Leaf Fall (1973). We see all the coloristic variety of autumn nature on the painting A Cowberry Glade (1977), where tones of sadness are also 3 Личное дело А. С. Бархаткова 11 Отдел арх. док. Белорусского государственного музея истории Великой Отечественной войны. — Ф. 5. — С. 8—9. 26 present. The artist shows spring in an equally convincing way. There are a sunny spring morning and still leafless trees in Lyrical Landscape (1967). Intersecting lines of their branches against the background of a bright blue sky give a feeling of clear air, freshness. A Stream. Poviazn (1974) is a very poetic lyrical landscape, in which the author marvels at awakening spring nature, shows its tender beauty through smooth curves of banks, color nuances of bluish tones. Thanks to the repeated images (the blue sky, the trees and their vague, dynamic reflections in the water) a spring melody is born. The late spring is shown on the paintings A May Day. Poviazn (1974), Apple Trees Are Blooming (1978). The artist also painted still-lives in those years, which content-wise were connected with nature and the seasons. Thus, the sketch composition Mushrooms (1970) brings the sense of passing summer and other still-life — Lilac (1970) — the breath of spring, the flowering season. A. S. Barkhatkou turned to memorial landscape continuing the traditions of his teachers P. I. Petrovichev and V. K. Bialynitsky-Birulya. In 1982, there appeared the painting Favourite Oaks of Yakub Kolas in Mikalaieushchyna, where the painter showed “noble athletes” as the poet himself called the trees. Areas connected with Kolas are also depicted on the canvas A High Bank. Mikalaieushchyna (1984). This composition attracts attention with its majestic colorful sky and water surface painted in a complex color scheme of blue-lilac, bluish and greenish tones. In 1963, there was created Portrait of an Old Woman (collective farmer Voinich, a second cousin of the poet). The author depicted her sitting by the window in a russet overcoat and a bright blue headscarf, which framed the highlighted strong-willed face of the elderly woman. We see a person who came through the harsh trials of life and was not broken, a person with dignity and strong character knowing how to stand up for herself. Areas connected with another famous Belarusian poet Yanka Kupala are shown in the works Road to Viazynka (1972) and A Stream. Viazynka (1974) — a poetic and melodic study-landscape depicting a warm spring day in a coloristically expressive way. The artist continued creative search for colors and more expressive manner of execution in the 1980s — 1990s. New paint combinations appeared in his color schemes. Barkhatkou himself said that lilac paint had made appearance 27 in his works4. A generalized image was created in the landscape painting My Homeland (1985). A wide space of a golden field lit by the sun rays striking through clouds opens in front of viewers. A blue sky with light clouds with a touch of pink and blue tinges takes the larger part of the composition and gives solemnity to the painting. In the work Beginning of May (1994), subtle color combinations create a distinctive image of spring nature. Landscapes of more ambiguous character conveying complex states of nature started to appear in that period. Emotional diversity is characteristic of his works. The painting On the Msta River (1995) is filled with intensity and drama. It depicts a cold windy day in late autumn with white clouds running across the blue sky, with dark-blue water in a restless river and a boat with two figures rocking on the waves. In many autumn landscapes, admiration of the beauty of nature is combined in different ways with shadows of sadness. On the canvas Leaf Fall (1988), the sky is painted with light strokes of pale blue and pinkish-lilac paint, while cold blue grey and dark tones paint the river water, to which trees with yellow leaves bend sadly. Silence and meditativeness is combined with mild anxiety. The painting A Golden Birch (1989) shows wistful melancholy of autumn. Bright rich colors of the landscape Golden Autumn (1985) enable to feel the beauty of this season, although it is “farewell beauty”: branches of the tree on the foreground bow to the ground, their rhythm creates a melancholic melody. The complicated mood permeates the composition of the painting Hoarfrost on the Academic Summer Cottage (1992), where the beauty of winter nature is shown by the admiring author: trees and bushes with hoarfrost, a pale blue sky with greyish-lilac clouds. The sense of alertness, stiffness and winter cold is present at the same time.