August Jansen was undoubtedly one of the most influential artists of the first half of the 20. century. After the studies in St.Petersburg, in the school of the Arts Promoting Society and in the higher school of arts of the Academy of Arts, Jansen returned to Estonia. Here he became an unreplacable lecturer, an extremely active organizer of the artistic life and a fruitful artist. He moved swiftly between a number of techniques, becoming between the two wars one of the most significant landscape painters. While taking into account the deep traditions of the mentioned genre, it was more than remarkable. Jansens works from the 1940ies reflect clearly the author’s desire to rest, which lasted for a couple of years, before taking again up the work as a lecturer. “Maastik jõega” represents a typical Jansen of this period, gathering onto the picture the motif of the homeland, where he is interested in addition to the colours’-related problems – differently from the previous periods – searching for the essence of nature. It has been noticed that just at that time can be found in Jansen’s works a certain new quality: colours do not oppose each other sharply, but the artist is searching for colours, being carried by a single prevailing basic shade. But still, in this picture Jansen is not inquiring so much “the values of colours themselves, but the total sensation from the nature”, for the purpose of which he uses equally soft yellow, slightly melancholic blue and modest green. A boat, waiting on a river bank and farmhouses, which can be seen from behind the field shadows, convince us that in the first range the artist is interested in forwarding of the unexplainable feeling of the homeland.