“I enjoy silence, but today I cannot stand it. It seems as if I am being followed by something in the shadows. It's frightening. I was struck by the idea that an important secret might lie here. At moments it felt as if this quiet and dark night was a monster. Sprawling itself over the surroundings and breathing ever so slowly. Great wide open and still eyes filled with deep indifference and an important secret of some sort.” ( M. K. Čiurlionis's letter to E. Morawski, 14 May, 1902)

This pastel-coloured painting entitled “Serenity” is not the only one of its kind. M. K. Čiurlionis sent his loved ones a postcard with this motif and later painted three different versions of the painting. One of them (the larger one) is believed to have been painted at the request of Jonas and Ona Vileišis and left behind in Kharkov during World War I. Its fate, however, is unknown.

“Serenity” is what can be called a psychological landscape – it is apparent that the artist wished to present an image of his inner world. M. K. Čiurlionis used an object of nature to create an anthropomorphic creature lurking in the water with two fires for eyes – something that might just as well be an island or a dragon or a monster.

This reflects the influences of the symbolist art movement on Čiurlionis' early work. He valued the work of Arnold Böcklin, and a close connection is apparent between his “Serenity” and the latter's “Isle of the Dead” (1880).

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Serenity

The City. From the cycle of sketches “The City”.

Graveyard Motif