"[4] Some researchers of Savrasov's work believe that the very first drawings and studies for the painting could have been performed by the artist in Yaroslavl or its environs, shortly before his trip to the Kostroma Governorate.

[4] The Rooks received good reviews: artist Ivan Kramskoi wrote that at the exhibition, this landscape "is the best, and it is truly beautiful,"[21][22] and art critic Vladimir Stasov noted that it is "probably the best and most original painting by Mr.

"[7][14] Critic and musicologist Boris Asafiev wrote that the painting became "a symbol of the artistic renewal of the sphere of the Russian landscape for 'far ahead'", and that with this work Savrasov discovered "a new sense of spring and springiness.

"[25] In late 1870, Alexei Savrasov, who was then a professor at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, took a five-month leave of absence to travel to Yaroslavl with his family, including his wife Sophia Karlovna and children.

[14] In a letter to Pavel Tretyakov dated 31 December 1870, Savrasov wrote: "The quiet life in Yaroslavl allows me to concentrate on art",[28][29] and in his New Year's greetings to his brother-in-law Karl Hertz, the artist reported: "After all the troubles, I am just beginning to work and am very satisfied with the studio and the apartment in general.

[34] Some researchers believe that it was the artist's depressed state following the tragedy that led to his vivid creative response to the phenomena heralding the arrival of spring.

According to art historian Faina Maltseva, "the idea of a new painting, prompted by an encounter with an early spring landscape, can be confidently associated with Savrasov's stay in Yaroslavl".

[12] Art historian Vladimir Petrov also believes that the artist's first drawings and sketches for the planned painting were made in Yaroslavl, "under the influence of helpful in overcoming suffering 'healing vastness', the beauty of eternally renewed, resurrecting nature".

[35] It appears that the artist travelled between Yaroslavl and Kostroma, which were 70 versts apart and not connected by railway, by sledge via the so-called 'highland road' (Russian: «нагорный тракт») that ran along the right bank of the Volga.

[40] The reason why the artist Savrasov left Kostroma for Molvitino, located more than 50 versts north of the provincial centre, remains unclear to researchers.

[41] Kostroma's local historian Nikolai Zontikov believed that this version is "a figment of the writer's imagination" and wrote that "it is only regrettable that it was included in some works about Savrasov as an indisputable fact.

According to the staff of the local museum, there used to be a two- or three-storey house where the family of the hatmaker Chichagov lived in the place depicted in the painting.

[17][51] The exhibition showcased paintings by Lev Kamenev, Sergei Ammosov, and Vladimir Ammon, as well as works by renowned landscape artists such as Alexei Bogolyubov, Mikhail Klodt, and Ivan Shishkin from Moscow.

The exhibition showcased paintings by Lev Kamenev, Sergei Ammosov, and Vladimir Ammon,[52] as well as works by renowned landscape artists such as Alexei Bogolyubov, Mikhail Clodt, and Ivan Shishkin from Moscow.

[23] In the review article "The First Russian Travelling Art Exhibition", published in the December 1871 issue of the magazine Otechestvennye Zapiski, the writer and critic Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin did not pay much attention to landscapes, but mentioned "the charming painting The Rooks Have Returned by Mr Savrasov.

These include Nikolai Ge's painting Peter the Great Interrogating the Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich at Peterhof, Vasily Perov's Hunters at Rest and Fisherman, Ilya Repin's Barge Haulers on the Volga, Henryk Siemiradzki's Christ and Sinner, and others.

[60] Local historian Nikolai Zontikov notes that Savrasov painted the Church of the Resurrection from the north-east, where the highest point of Molvitin (Susanin) is located.

"[28] Through the carefully developed plastic characterisation of the landscape elements, the artist manages to convey the sadness of the passing winter and the joy of the reawakening of nature in spring.

[71] In particular, the development of the sky is innovative, with traces of brushstrokes visible all over its surface, and "the character and direction of the strokes are constantly changing, creating an impression of lightness and awe in the painting.

[77][78] The Tretyakov Gallery possesses a sketch variant from the early 1870s titled Landscape with Church and Bell Tower (tinted paper on cardboard, black chalk and graphite pencil, sauce and whiting, wet brush, 49.7 × 33.3 cm, inv.

Based on Faina Maltseva's analysis, this sketch variant may have been created by the artist during the early stages of work on the painting, possibly in the rural village of Kresty near Yaroslavl, where a church with similar architecture was located.

[80] As previously mentioned, Savrasov executed the first author's repetition of the painting The Rooks Have Returned in early 1872 at the request of Empress Maria Alexandrovna.

The Rooks Have Returned (canvas, oil, 67 × 117 cm, private collection, Moscow), which was included in the catalogue of Savrasov's 2005 solo exhibition.

[85][86] The Tretyakov Gallery has a replica with the same title from 1894 (tinted ground paper, Italian pencil, sauce, eraser, scraping, 33 × 23 cm, inventory no.

Speaking of the artist's skill in depicting trees, birds, the landscape and the bell tower, Stasov exclaimed: "How wonderful it all is, how you can hear winter here, its fresh breath!

Describing its subject, Levitan wrote: "The outskirts of a remote town, an old church, a shabby fence, a field, melting snow and in the foreground a few birch trees on which the arriving rooks have settled - that's all.

Benois wrote that Savrasov's Rooks was "a wonderful picture, so poetic, at the same time wistful and joyful, truly spring"; in this sense he compared it to the introduction to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden.

[94] In his monograph on Savrasov, art historian Alexei Fedorov-Davydov also noted that The Rooks Have Returned is not an accidental success, but the best painting among similar works by the artist.

[96] The critic and musicologist Boris Asafyev (literary pseudonym - Igor Glebov) wrote that the painting The Rooks Have Returned became "a symbol of artistic renewal of the sphere of Russian landscape for 'far ahead'" and that with this work Savrasov "opened a new sense of spring and springtime.

"[97][98][99] Art historian Faina Maltseva wrote that in the painting The Rooks Have Returned Savrasov managed to create "a multidimensional and poetic image of the Russian spring, close to human life not externally but internally".