August 30 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the famous Russian artist Isaac Levitan.
One of the most famous Russian landscape painters, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, was born on August 30 (August 18 according to the old style), 1860, on the western outskirts of Russia in a small village near the Kibarty railway station, now Kibartay (Lithuania), not far from the Verzhbolovo border checkpoint, in an intelligent Jewish family.
Isaac received his initial education at home, and in the late 1860s. father moved the family to Moscow to give children a good education. In choise life path Isaac Levitan was played by his older brother, an artist who often took the boy with him to sketches and art exhibitions.
In 1873, Isaac entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where his teachers were the artists Alexei Savrasov and Vasily Polenov.
In 1875, the mother died, and two years later, the father, and the children had to lead an almost beggarly lifestyle.
Isaac was expelled from the school for non-payment of the next tuition fee, but friends collected the necessary amount and Levitan returned to classes. Seeing the talent and diligence of the young man, the Board of Teachers of the school decided to release Levitan from tuition fees and assign him a small stipend.
Levitan's everyday situation remained extremely disastrous for a long time (he sometimes starved, spent the night in the attic).
In March 1877, Levitan moved to the landscape class of Savrasov, and in the same year the first exhibition in the life of the painter took place, where two works by Levitan "Autumn" and "Overgrown Courtyard" were exhibited.
In 1879, Levitan was forced to leave Moscow - after the assassination attempt on Alexander II, committed by the Narodnaya Volya Solovyov, the tsarist administration began the eviction of Jews from the "first throne". For some time, Isaac lived with his sister's family in the suburban area of Saltykovskaya near Moscow, from where, due to extreme poverty, he had to walk to the school, and then moved to Ostankino, which also lay outside the city. But in spite of everything, he worked with inspiration.
On December 25, 1879, the second student exhibition opened, at which Levitan presented his painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki", where the female figure in the picture was painted by Anton Chekhov's brother Nikolai. In 1880, the painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki" was acquired by the collector Pavel Tretyakov, which was a recognition of Levitan's artistic talent.
Before graduating from college, Levitan, for lack of funds, did not go far from Moscow and painted landscapes near Moscow: he painted many things in Sokolniki, in Ostankino. Having met with the family of Anton Chekhov, he lived with her for the summer in Babkino, near New Jerusalem.
The result is such of his works as "Pines", "Oak Grove. Autumn", "Oak".
Along with landscape painting during this period, he worked on the scenery for the Moscow private Russian opera of Savva Mamontov, whom he met in 1882. Levitan painted three scenery for Mikhail Glinka's opera "Life for the Tsar", performed several scenery according to Polenov's sketches and according to the sketch Viktor Vasnetsov painted the scenery for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Snow Maiden and the underwater kingdom for Dargomyzhsky's opera Rusalka.
In 1885, Isaac Levitan graduated from college with honors. After graduating from college, he lived mainly in Moscow, worked in various places in the Moscow and Tver provinces. Theatrical earnings gave him the opportunity in 1886 to make a trip to the Crimea. Polenov really liked the Crimean sketches of Levitan, the landscape painter gained fame.
Levitan was a member of the Association of the Wanderers. In 1886 he took part in traveling exhibitions, exhibiting his work "Spring", and since 1888 has become their permanent participant.
In 1887 Levitan went to the Volga. The Volga nature gives the artist new landscape scenes, the canvases "Evening. Golden Reach", "After the Rain. Reach", "Evening on the Volga", "Fresh Wind. Volga" and others appear.
In 1889 he visited Paris and became acquainted with the new European art.
In the spring of 1894, the artist arrived in the Tver province, where he painted such canvases as "Spring. The Last Snow", "March", "Blossoming Apple Trees", " Golden autumn", "big road. Autumn sunny day.
In 1898 he took part in the exhibition "Russian and Finnish Artists" organized by Sergei Diaghilev, as well as in the exhibition "Secession" in Munich, in 1899 and 1900. participated in exhibitions "World of Art" and at the world exhibition in Paris (1900).
In 1898 Isaac Levitan was awarded the title of academician landscape painting and in the same year he became a teacher at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, where he once studied.
By the 1890s include the best works of Levitan. These are pictures" Quiet abode", "At the pool", "Above the eternal rest", "March", "Evening bells", "Golden autumn", "Spring - big water", "Vladimirka", which Isaac Levitan presented as a gift to the Tretyakov Gallery, etc. The last , unfinished painting by Levitan - "Lake. Rus'" is (despite the deadly disease) perhaps his most joyful work.
In 1896, Levitan, after suffering from typhus for the second time, intensified the symptoms of heart disease, which had previously made itself felt.
In the summer of 1900 his health deteriorated. Isaac Levitan died on July 22 (August 4), 1900 in Moscow. He is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
The artist left about a thousand paintings, sketches, drawings, sketches. Many of his works are scattered in private collections and collections. The largest and best part of Levitan's work is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. The gallery's founder, Pavel Tretyakov, began acquiring Levitan's works when he was only eighteen years old and never let the artist out of his field of vision in the future. The Tretyakov Gallery stores paintings: "Autumn Day. Sokolniki", "Fog", "On the Volga", "Autumn", "After the Rain", "Evening", " Moonlight night", "At the pool", "Vladimirka", "Over Eternal Peace", "Summer Evening", "March", "Fresh Wind" and many others.
In Plyos there is the only Levitan House-Museum in Russia, opened in 1972.
Isaac Levitan, who visited Plyos for the first time in 1888, wrote here 23 famous canvases, as well as drawings, sketches, sketches - about 200 works in total. Two years after the opening of the museum, a monument to Levitan was erected next to it (the author of the sculptural portrait is Nikolai Dydykin).
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
The great master of the Russian landscape, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, was born into a large and friendly Jewish family in a provincial Lithuanian town near the Polish border. His "non-Russian" origin until the end of his life will cause humiliation and deprivation, but will not force him to leave the country, which has always been a source of inspiration for him, no matter what.
Financial difficulties forced the artist's family to move to, where at the age of 13 Levitan entered the Art School. The years of study were full of both successes and troubles. Not all teachers liked that their student was Jewish. And Levitan's passion for the Russian landscape seemed to the masters feigned and insincere. The master was lucky with the main teachers -, and. They were able to discern in the first timid and uncertain strokes of a schoolboy future talent, so they treated the student Levitan in a special way.
The early death of his parents almost crossed out plans for education. Teachers and friends helped. The young artist works tirelessly. In the late 70s of the 19th century, Levitan met Chekhov. This acquaintance was important for both. It is hard to imagine more spiritually close people, equally talented, equally sensitive to beauty.
During a student exhibition in 1879, one of the works of the student Levitan (Autumn Day. Sokolniki.) Tretyakov himself buys for 100 rubles. It would seem that from this moment life should change for the better. But no, in the same year Levitan, like all Jews, was expelled from Moscow. Only a year later, thanks to the efforts of influential friends, he managed to return.
In the period from 1880 to 1885, the artist creates his famous canvases"Autumn", "Pines", "First Snow". The master becomes famous, his works are popular. In the 85th year, instead of a diploma of an artist, the school issues a diploma to Levitan as a “teacher of calligraphy”. Another humiliation affects the health of the artist. He leaves for the Crimea. The result of this trip was a series of landscapes that received rave reviews from critics.
The next success - pictures of the "Volga" period of life. Thanks to numerous works created in the vicinity of the city of Ples, Levitan finally gets rid of financial difficulties and becomes famous. Now the artist is going to Europe. There he gets acquainted with the best examples of the French landscape. The search for the Impressionists turns out to be very congenial to the master.
At the very beginning of the 90s, Levitan joined the Wanderers society. His masterpieces appear at the exhibitions of the association: "At the pool", "Summer", "October". And then again expulsion from Moscow. This time, his friends were so influential that the forced exile in the Tver and Vladimir provinces did not last long, but the humiliation further undermined his health. It is in his forced exile that Levitan writes one of his most profound and talented works – .
In 1894, the artist creates a canvas, which is considered to be the pinnacle of his work - "Above Eternal Peace". None of, before Levitan, approached in his work such high poetry and sensuality in the depiction of nature.
In subsequent years, the artist worked tirelessly -, "Golden Autumn", "Fresh Wind. Volga" - these are only those that were recognized as masterpieces during the lifetime of the master. In 1898, Isaac Levitan received the title of academician and the right to teach at the Art School. But his health by this time was completely upset.
His last work, filled with sunny optimism and warmth - - he never finished. The heart of the great Russian artist Isaac Ilyich Levitan stopped on August 4, 1900.
Among the most famous artists of the world, Russian painters are vivid images. Magnificent paintings by masters compete with masterpieces best artists of the world are deservedly recognized. Here are the living, breathing works of Isaac Ilyich Levitan.
Biography and work of the artist Isaac Levitan
In the town of Kybarty, Marijampolsky district, belonging to the Augustow province, a poor family of Jews lived. Ilya Abramovich (Elyashiv-Leib) 18 (30). 08.1860 Once again became a father. An educated person tried to support the children, to give all four of them a normal education.
There is a slightly different perspective on this family. Some art critics, historians claim that Isaac was not the son of Ilya Abramovich Levitan, since the child was 5 months older than his younger brother. Most likely, the boy was left without parents, his uncle adopted his nephew. The exact date/place where Levitan was born is unknown.
Ilya Levitan understood that only cadets, students of large educational institutions, would receive a good education. The family headed for the capital after the birth of the boys. So the father provided the opportunity to study at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, Architecture. The first to start studying was Abel Leib (1871), Isaac - 1873.
1875 brought grief to the family: death took the mother. Health left the father. Leaving the hard work of a railway worker, Ilya Abramovich tried to make ends meet, was engaged in tutoring, could not pay for the studies of two students. The school helped the family. In view of the extreme need of the students, he transferred the guys to free education. On February 3, 1877, typhus took my father.
Isaac was trained in the "natural" class under the guidance of Perov, later Savrasov took up training in the landscape class. By March 1877, the student exhibited two masterpieces, covered by the press, which brought the guy a silver medal, financial assistance state (220 rubles).
1879 brought changes to all Jews: they were forbidden to live in the capital. The brush master moved to the summer cottage of Saltykovka, taking his sister and her husband. In 1880, having sold the painting "Evening after the Rain", the young master of the brush rented an apartment in Bolshaya Lubyanka with full furniture.
In the 80s, Isaac spent his summer days on the territory of Ostankino, creating magnificent masterpieces. Levitan's works of those years were taken apart by private collections and museums. For example, the painting "Way Stop" is exhibited among the exhibits of the Levitan's house-museum. There they came out from under the pen:
- "Oak Grove. Autumn";
- "Pines";
- "Oak".
Lack of money prevented Isaac from getting a diploma. In the spring of 1885, the artist moved to Maksimovka, located next to Babkin, where the Chekhov family often visited. So Levitan and Chekhov met, became friends-rivals. The painter began to get sick, his heart often reminded of himself. In 1886, the master of the brush improved his health in the Crimea, held an exhibition, presenting 50 landscape paintings. In the 1980s and 1990s, Isaac was a landscape teacher at the Gunst School of Fine Arts.
The painter spent the winter months of 1889-1890 in Europe, traveling through the French and Italian expanses, visiting the World Exhibition of Art in Paris.
In 1892, Isaac had to move from the capital's province, as a "person of the Jewish faith", first to Tver, then to Vladimir province. The artist communicates a lot with Serov, who painted a portrait of Levitan:
1895 marked the trip to the Austrian, French lands.
In 1896, the artist suffered from typhoid fever, which caused a complication of an aneurysm of the heart. The disease became incurable.
May 1897. The master of painting enjoyed living in Courmayeur, located near the Italian city of Mont Blanc. 1988 Levitan was awarded the title of academician of landscape painting.
The winter of 1899 knocked down the painter. Doctors sent Isaac to Yalta, where he met with Chekhov and often talked about death, because his heart hurt constantly. 22.07 (4.08) 1900 Levitan left the world.
Levitan's paintings
Levitan spent a lot of time in nature. His sick heart wanted freedom, silence, faith in the best. Most famous paintings Levitan with names that reveal the beauty of the Russian land to the audience are in the most famous collections.
The canvas "Golden Autumn" shows a magnificent landscape that appeared before the eyes of the artist in 1895 near the Gorka estate, located on the territory of the Tver province. An expressive, energetic work technique, a pure view of nature created a real masterpiece.
“March” is a canvas created in the Gorka estate. The painting is presented by the Tretyakov Gallery. When looking at the image, the viewer falls into a cheerful drop, life comes to life, the earth wakes up. The victory of cheerful spring over the cold cold of winter is presented at the moment of a turning point in favor of warmth.
The canvas “Above Eternal Peace” reflects the thoughts and feelings of the artist. The insignificance of human thoughts, the rapid course of life, the cycle of life left an imprint on the picture. Gray clouds, church, cemetery, hill above still waters lake mud.
The painting "At the pool" represents bright pattern painter's talent. Presented in 1892, it strikes with the naturalness of the image. The silence of a dangerous place is addictive, anxiety, anxiety cover with prolonged admiration of the canvas. The desire to jump into the water, to leave problems, to leave forever by a quiet waterway creeps into the mind of the viewer. The dangerous beauty of the Russian hinterland fascinates with its completeness.
Canvas " Birch Grove”is a vivid example of positive landscape art. Glare of the sun's rays, flowers awaken the desire to live, to enjoy a new day.
Opening the soul to God, watching the sunset at the monastery, will help the painting "Evening Bells". The purity of the image, the quiet expanse of river water, small canoes, emphasizing the insignificance human existence. Beauty leading to God.
The monastery over the Volga, the footpath, the fragile wooden bridge indicate the thorny path of a person's life. The painting "Quiet Abode" gives peace, healing to the rushing soul. Calmness, faith in God, the reliability of His protection are felt in the first minutes of contemplation.
The unfinished canvas "Lake" was created by the artist on the verge of death. The last strokes did not have time to finish the work, which remained forever an unfinished masterpiece. The painter managed to convey some of the images, to give them life. Moving clouds, rustling reeds, quiet water ripples come to the fore. Silence, the power of nature are set off by the images of people's activities in the background, but remain the main motive.
A clean field, a road going into the distance, the infinity of heaven and earth make up the main motif of the painting "Vladimirka". A symbol of the endless path, the endless cycle of life.
autumn scenery Levitan is rarely captured by clear human figures. Pure nature inspires the master, but the painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki won recognition immediately. A deserted alley, yellowed leaves, a light female silhouette in harmony with nature. Calmness, nostalgia permeate the image created by a skillful brush.
Nature in the work of Levitan occupies a central place. The master's works are imbued with reverence for Russian fields, forests, rivers, lakes. After the death of the artist, little-known sketches by Levitan (300), 40 unfinished canvases were found.
CategoryOn August 18, 1860, a second son was born in an intelligent Jewish family living on the western outskirts of Russia, near the border checkpoint Verzhbolovo, whose parents named Isaac. The father of the future artist had an education in a rabbinic school, but could not succeed in this field and served in various minor positions in the Russian railway. Trying to get a better job, the family wandered around the railway stations all the time, which did not bring any positive result.
As the artist himself recalled, every year, with every new place, life became harder and harder. Trying to correct the plight of the family, the father was engaged in self-education and in the time remaining from work he studied French and German. In such conditions, retraining took years of painstaking work.
Ilya Levitan found the application of his new knowledge when, by order of the Russian government, a French construction company began laying a railway bridge across the Neman River in the town of Kovio. The father of the Levitan family got a job as a translator at this construction site. However, this did not bring him much money. Even trying to give private foreign language lessons to the children of wealthy parents, Ilya did not have the funds to send his two children to primary school. He had to train them on his own.
The Levitan family had two eldest sons and two daughters. The constant semi-beggarly existence and the father's attempts to bring his sons into people forced them to move to Moscow in the late 1860s.
However, even here Ilya Levitan failed to find any permanent position. He survived with private lessons in foreign languages, while the whole family huddled in a cramped little apartment on the edge of the city.
The cold and squalid housing, located under the very roof of the building on the fourth floor, had one advantage - from its high windows a stunning view of the city opened. Here the sunrise was earlier, and the sunset burned longer. This was the only outlet for the poetic and contemplative nature of the future artist in his dull and half-starved life.
The ability to draw early manifested itself in both sons of Levitan. The boys are always great joy and with passion they drew and sculpted together. The father of the family treated them with condescension. shared passion and sent in 1870 his eldest son Abel to the Moscow School of Painting and Architecture. From that moment on, Isaac became his brother's constant companion, he always accompanied him to the open air.
When the age approached, Isaac Levitan himself entered the same educational institution.
At that time, children of the poor, peasants and artisans prevailed among students at MUZHVIZ. But even here, where it was difficult to surprise someone with poverty, the Levitan family became a separate topic of ridicule. This was facilitated by the shyness and secrecy of the young men, which further provoked the students. Moreover, the situation of the boys only worsened, after the death of their mother in 1875, it seemed that it became almost impossible to live.
In his memoirs, the artist said that often he simply had nowhere to go after classes. He tried to hide in the classroom from the night watchman behind easels or curtains in order to spend the night warm. But much more often Levitan was put out on the street, and he had to freeze on a bench or wander around a deserted city all night.
After two years of such a homeless life, the young man, along with his father, ended up in the hospital. Both had a terrible diagnosis - typhoid fever. Youth helped Isaac survive and even return to school, but Ilya Levitan died in a hospital bed. After the death of the father, the children will finally lose any means of subsistence. They no longer had any opportunity to pay even the meager fee that was established in the school.
And here, for the first time in his life, Isaac was lucky - he came across excellent teachers. From the very beginning of his studies, the boy ended up in a full-scale class, in which Vasily Grigorievich Perov taught. The well-known "wanderer" openly declared himself the voice of all the destitute, offended and suffering. And when he practically headed the school, all talented Moscow youth burst into this building on Myasnitskaya, famous for its Masonic past.
Forest violets and forget-me-nots. 1889. 
But, it must be admitted that the young Levitan took his teachers not only with pity. The Board of Trustees saved him from having to pay tuition fees and even recommended him to receive a scholarship from Prince Dolgorukov, Governor-General of Moscow, not at all out of philanthropy, but because the industriousness, observation and poetry of the nature of the young artist interested the head of the landscape workshop, artist Alexei Kondratievich Savrasov. Impressed by the young man's landscapes, he practically lured him into his class.
Having survived all the pain and suffering in the niche of a hungry life and the death of his parents, Isaac was able to maintain spiritual purity and sensitivity. Once in Savrasov's class, he wholeheartedly accepted the most important instruction of his beloved teacher: "... write, study, but most importantly - feel!".
This rare ability to feel nature brought the first fruits to the painter quite early. At the student exhibition, his work “Autumn Day. Sokolniki (1879, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) was not only noticed and appreciated by the audience, but also interested Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov himself, a famous art connoisseur and collector who considered the main thing in painting not so much beauty as poetry, the truth of the soul.
Autumn day. Sokolniki. 1879. 
The alley of a deserted park strewn with fallen leaves and a female figure dressed in black evoke a sad feeling. autumn wilt, regrets about the past and loneliness. Bright yellow young trees dotted along the gently curving alley contrast sharply with the gloomy coniferous forest. The clouds floating across the overcast sky are beautifully painted, which create an atmosphere of damp cold weather, and the multi-colored autumn foliage is written out perfectly.
Painted in 1880, the painting “Autumn. Hunter ”(Tver Regional Art Gallery), similar in mood to the previous one. Thanks to a similar compositional construction with a sharp perspective cut, both works have depth and space. Only the path chaotically strewn with fallen yellow leaves, along which a hunter walks in the distance, accompanied by a dog, gives this picture a slightly more major sound.
Levitan's paintings, which are characterized by a calm narrative character, are read like literary works. Two of his student works were able to express this rare feature, which became a distinctive feature of all subsequent landscapes of the painter.
Soon, Levitan began a period of new difficulties. His more or less established position was again violated. The college's council of professors unexpectedly dismissed Isaac's favorite teacher, Savrasov, and the young landscape painters were left without a master.
It was in 1882, when the young artist had already finished one of his best works - "Spring in the Forest" (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). The canvas with surprising ease conveys the state of timid awakening of nature from hibernation. The first green grass near a calm stream and the leaves that have just appeared on the branches of trees create a poetic and peaceful atmosphere. Thin stems and branches of trees, leaning on both sides above the water, form a shady space, surprisingly accurately betraying the breath of the forest.
A little time passed and the students were introduced to their new teacher. A talented artist Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov came to MUZHVIZ, who not only brought his vision of nature here, but also inspired enthusiasm and optimism in students. Polenov's wife was a relative of a wealthy industrialist and famous philanthropist Savva Ivanovich Mamontov. Sometimes Vasily Dmitrievich, heading to his estate Abramtsevo, where the entire artistic elite of Moscow dreamed of visiting, took his most talented students with him.
Once they were Konstantin Korovin and Isaac Levitan. The cheerful creative atmosphere of the rich estate and the benevolent attitude towards talents amazed the young artists. Mamontov, who was a great singer and a passionate admirer of opera, staged grandiose home performances. His dream was to create his own musical theatre.
It was friendly relations with Savva the Magnificent that later gave Levitan the opportunity to try himself in the field of a theater decorator. The acquaintances acquired by the young artist in the patron's house strengthened his position in artistic environment. Unfortunately, a wonderful period of relative financial and emotional freedom ended very quickly. Vasily Perov died, and squabbles and intrigues began in the democratically minded MUZHVIZ.
last rays. Lake. 1898-1899. 
Already at the beginning of 1884, despite successful delivery exams, Isaac Levitan was expelled from the school for systematic non-attendance at classes. The board of trustees offered the young artist a "not cool" diploma, which gives the only opportunity - to become a drawing teacher. Levitan was in despair. In a fit of feelings, he leaves Moscow and leaves for Savvinskaya Sloboda near Zvenigorod, the magnificent nature of which was praised by his school comrades. In this wonderful place, he creates beautiful landscapes “Savvinskaya Sloboda near Zvenigorod” and “Bridge. Savvinskaya Sloboda "(both - 1884, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow).
Savvinskaya Sloboda near Zvenigorod. 1884. 
The canvases are completely different in condition, but possessing a breath of freshness and surprisingly poetic. Under a cold, almost transparent sky, from under the snow that has just fallen, the first sprouts of greenery make their way here and there, and in the background, still bare trees are visible, beginning to be covered with delicate leaves. Under the bright sun, a narrow river gleams cheerfully, with a wooden bridge thrown over it. The state of waiting for spring gives rise to hope for a better future.
In the life of Levitan, as almost always, a difficult time has come. The artist suffered from loneliness, having neither housing nor permanent work. Relations with his brother Abel already in his student years were built on the principle of "every man for himself." As a result, closed, feeling like a loser, against the background of his classmates, Isaac maintained warm relations only with Nikolai Chekhov, who was also expelled from MUZHVIZ and had the same unbalanced character as Levitan himself. The young artist settled not far from the Chekhovs' dacha. True, now, he got along with the brother of his fellow student - Anton and his sister Maria.
Portrait of the writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. 1885-1886. 
Maria Chekhova became Levitan's first love, but he failed to earn her reciprocity. In addition, Anton himself did not advise his sister to connect her life with a person whose future is unclear. Isaac suffered greatly and was in a state of depression. Probably only a frequent stay in the Chekhovs' house, in which he could see his beloved girl and be distracted from his own thoughts, saved the artist from suicide attempts. Fortunately, Anton Pavlovich helped the artist cope with gloomy moods and fight serious illnesses that haunted Levitan.
After two years of his stay in Savvinskaya Sloboda, in the spring of 1886, he recovered from illness and received good money for creating scenery Private Opera Mamontov, Isaac decides to leave for the Crimea. The artist spent more than two months on the peninsula, and when he returned, he amazed his friends with the number of works created there.
All Crimean canvases by Levitan presented at Moscow exhibitions were sold out very quickly. Pavel Tretyakov acquired two paintings, including “Saklya in Alupka” (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), for his collection.
For the first time in the entire work of the artist, instead of cold translucent clouds, a bright blue sky appeared on his works, under which stands an unusual dilapidated adobe Tatar dwelling, contrasting with the grayish-white rock in the background. Despite the fact that the whole composition seems to be penetrated by the sun's rays, filled with ringing color spots, so characteristic of southern landscapes, Levitan perfectly managed to convey the feeling of heat and hot sand. In such works of the painter, the main quality of his creations is manifested: they have a rare emotional sensitivity to all movements of color and light. Even the most unpretentious landscape motif Levitan was able to convey with a special mood, creating a feeling of some kind of hidden nerve.
These canvases include "Overgrown Pond" (1887, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). Here the artist managed to convey the subtle state of hidden sadness, appearing through the state of thoughtfulness. Black tree trunks reflected in the water mysteriously disappear under a layer of duckweed, giving the impression of hopelessness.
The color scheme of the canvas, built on countless shades of green, is impressive. This technique allowed the painter to achieve absolute realism in depicting branches of trees and shrubs leaning towards the grass, the dark surface of a pond covered with duckweed and the prospect of a distant meadow against a cloudy sky, which is also solved in a transparent greenish-bluish palette. Obviously, the artist was captivated by such an opportunity, first with the eye, and then with the brush, to trace and convey the tonality of the summer greenery, which the sun had time to dry, and the pond filled with moisture.
The success of the Crimean landscapes allowed Levitan to slightly improve his life. Now he could rent housing in Moscow and afford to be in the homes of various interesting people. Many noble Moscow houses of that time arranged lavish evenings, where famous writers, artists and musicians were invited. On one of these dinner parties Isaac was introduced to Sofya Petrovna Kuvshinnikova and her husband.
Portrait of Sofia Petrovna Kuvshinnikova. 1888. 
Artists of the Maly Theater Lensky and Yermolova, the poet and writer Gilyarovsky, and Anton Chekhov liked to visit the Kuvshinnikovs' house. Sofya Petrovna, who was very interested in painting, asked Levitan to give her a few lessons, after which, their friendly relations became something more. An extravagant woman who was much older than the painter, in addition to art, she highly valued personal freedom and had a penchant for shocking. Sofya Petrovna obviously fell in love with this sad and unbalanced person. She surrounded her young lover attention and care, supporting him in every possible way. This period of creativity includes the work of Levitan "Birch Grove" (1885, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow).
In this canvas, the painter managed to wonderfully convey the play of light and shadow in a dense green grove flooded with sun. This painting is often called a model of Russian impressionism. Levitan vividly and reliably reproduced the momentary mood of the summer changeable nature of our homeland, permeated with warmth and light.
The work traces the influence of the work of Levitan's favorite artist - Camille Corot, who called the "landscape a state of mind" of the author.
Soon Isaac made a journey along the great Russian river - the Volga. This was in 1887 and 1888. On the trip, the artist was accompanied by Kuvshinnikova. In the work of many Russian artists, the Volga has traditionally been milestone, she inspired Alexei Savrasov, Ilya Repin, Fyodor Vasiliev.
True, the first impressions of the great river disappointed the artist, but on the second trip from the steamer he managed to make out a small picturesque town on the shore, which stretched between two bends of the river. It was Plyos, the surroundings of which the painter subsequently captured in his paintings.
Canvas "Evening. Golden Reach” (1889, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) breathes with a feeling of quiet happiness, appearing through the vibrating humid evening air. The view of the church with a chapel, next to which stands a small house with a red roof, in which the artist rented a floor together with Sofya Petrovna, was captured from the Peter and Paul Mountain.
A gentle, golden-pinkish fog in the setting sun envelops Plyos, the bluish-white walls of the bell tower against the background of a soft pinkish sky, the lush greenery of a gentle slope - the whole canvas is filled with a sense of the harmony of nature and human existence. Considering the scale of the work, the painter depicted the great river not at all solemnly and pretentiously, as can be seen in the works of most Russian masters, but surprisingly warm and peaceful.
It is the feeling of spiritual warmth that fills all the details of the picture, even the white dog, barely visible among the tall grass in the foreground, and it looks extraordinarily touching.
In 1889, Levitan painted another canvas dedicated to the Volga impressions - “After the Rain. Plyos (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). The picture, as if saturated with moisture, strikes with a masterful transfer of atmosphere and amazing expressiveness. Looking at it, you immediately feel this unusually calm state of nature after a storm. The grass is still shining from the rain, the wind drives soft silvery ripples across the surface of the Volga, the atmosphere of cold does not drown out the timid hope for warmth, conveyed by the artist through the slanting rays of the sun, peeping through torn clouds.
As a result, the Volga open spaces fell in love with the painter. Subsequently, he often returned to them. But even the same motives in Levitan were always conveyed in a new way, filled with different emotions and sensations. Trying to bring something more into his paintings, Levitan gradually moves from lyricism to philosophy, more and more reflecting on human destinies.
The work "Golden Autumn. Slobodka” (1889, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg) is still filled with a more lyrical, contemplative mood. Autumn trees dazzlingly "burn" under the still warm autumn sun. This bonfire of natural beauty is the only decoration of dull, rickety grey-brown village houses. However, even here there is harmony. rural life, born of her inseparable bond with nature.
Gold autumn. Slobidka. 1889. 
The indefatigable Sofya Petrovna once persuaded Levitan, who was brought up in the traditions of Judaism, to visit Orthodox church on the day of the Holy Trinity. There the artist was struck by the simplicity and sincerity of the festive prayer. He even shed a tear, explaining that this was not “Orthodox, but some kind of world prayer”!
These impressions resulted in the landscape “Quiet Abode”, amazing in beauty and sound (1890, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). The work hides the deep philosophical reasoning of the painter about life. In the picture we see a church, partly hidden in a dense forest, which is illuminated by the rays of the evening sun. Golden domes gently shine against the background of a soft golden-blue sky reflected in the clear water of the river. A light sandy path leads to an old, in some places destroyed and roughly patched up wooden bridge, thrown across the river. The composition of the canvas seems to invite the viewer to go and plunge into the purity and tranquility of being a holy monastery. The picture gives rise to hope for the possibility of a person finding quiet happiness and harmony with himself.
A few years later, the painter repeated this motif in his other canvas, Evening Ringing (1892, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). The painting depicts an Orthodox monastery, standing out against a lavender sky, and illuminated by the rays of the setting sun. Its white stone walls are reflected in the water with a light haze. The soft bend of the river goes around the monastery, smoothly leaving into the distance, and it seems as if the crimson chime of the bells of the bell tower towering over the autumn forest is flying over the water. In the foreground, a slightly overgrown path leads to the water, but there is no wooden bridge leading to the monastery on this canvas. All that remains of it is an old rickety pier, next to which are dark fishing boats, and a boat full of idle people floats along the walls of the monastery itself. For all the poetry of the image and a certain solemnity of sound, the picture does not give us hope for the possibility of achieving a cathartic sensation, suggesting only to dream about it with sadness, being, as it were, aloof from what is happening.
At first, all the works of Levitan, dedicated to his "Volga" impressions, which he presented at various Moscow exhibitions, were surrounded by some downright conspiratorial silence. Only Pavel Tretyakov, who for many years followed the work of the former student of the Moscow school in the most attentive way, acquired several of his paintings. But at some point a turning point came, and Levitan's work began to be heatedly discussed, the artist's works received the widest response, they constantly argued about him in all art salons capital Cities.
The painter himself stayed for a long time in the estates of the Tver province, together with Sofya Petrovna Kuvshinnikova. Tirelessly looking for new images, the artist wandered endlessly through the swampy forests. At first, the gloomy nature of the region and its inclement weather suppressed Levitan, but soon he pulled himself together and created his next work, which all of Moscow immediately started talking about.
The painting “At the Pool” (1892, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), which has a very impressive size, evokes an indescribable mystical feeling when viewed. This is the first work of the artist, where he not only admires nature, but emphasizes and seems to state the fact of its original hidden power.
In the foreground of the canvas, the viewer sees a narrow, dark and seemingly calm river. On the site of a dam washed out by the waters of the river, several old boards and slippery-looking logs are thrown over. The opposite bank of the river, as it were, calls to itself a bright path, but when you look where it leads, a feeling of vague fear is born, but is it worth going into the thickening gloomy deciduous-coniferous forest, standing under a gloomy and restless evening sky. Levitan masterfully conveyed the sensations of the ominous twilight of nature, giving rise to uncertainty and doubts, do we really need to look into the abyss, go to this mysterious and dead place?
The picture caused conflicting opinions in the Moscow artistic environment, someone admired her, someone did not consider her worthy of the master's brush. But a faithful admirer of Levitan's work and a very perspicacious person, Pavel Tretyakov, immediately bought it for his collection.
In the same period, subject to a sharp change of mood, the artist paints another canvas, distinguished by extraordinary lyricism, which has nothing to do with the ghost of mortal anguish cast by the previous picture. The canvas “Autumn” (1890s, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) again shows us the artist’s favorite melancholy, but bright motif of nature, purifying itself in a bright celebration of colors.
Nevertheless, according to the surviving evidence, in the 1990s, the master's depression became more and more intensified. A new deterioration in Levitan's state of mind was facilitated by Anton Chekhov's story "The Jumper", published in 1892. Immediately, the entire Moscow intelligentsia, including those who were not personally acquainted with Sofya Petrovna Kuvshinnikova, identified her in the image of the main character of the writer's ironic work. And although the artist at first did not attach importance to the fact that he himself was the victim of his friend's biting humor, soon, under the influence of his Sofya Petrovna, he quarreled with Chekhov. The break with a friend was not easy for the painter, especially since he still treated his sister Maria, who never married, with kindness and attentiveness.
Resting with Kuvshinnikova in the Vladimir province in the summer of that year, Levitan once, during one of his long walks through the forest, accidentally came across the old Vladimir road. The route was notorious for the fact that it was along it that convicts were sent to Siberia. This place made such a strong impression on the already depressed artist that he began to actively create sketches for his new work.
The work with political overtones “Vladimirka” (1892, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) shows us a deserted dirt road that goes into the distance, which is driven by the wheels of carriages in the center, and along the edges is trampled by a million bare feet shackled. A gloomy picture leaves a persistent feeling of hopelessness.
Levitan, for whom this painting had a special civil meaning, did not wait for public discussions, but immediately presented the painting to Tretyakov. Still at odds with Anton Chekhov, the artist sent one of the sketches for "Vladimirka" to his older brother Alexander, who was graduating from law faculty Moscow State University. The gift had an inscription on reverse side, which read: "To the future prosecutor." This gesture deeply offended the young man.
But the painter had the right not to like officials and authorities. Immediately after finishing work on the painting, Levitan was among the Jews subject to forcible expulsion from Moscow.
This is not the first time the artist has experienced acts of such anti-Semitic persecution regularly organized by the tsarist authorities. Even a close acquaintance with many representatives of the capital's nobility did not save him from them.
Thus, in 1893, Isaac Levitan again leaves for the Tver province, where, in spite of everything, he creates a surprisingly optimistic and bright in his mood canvas “On the Lake (Tver Province)” (Saratov Art Museum them. A. N. Radishchev). The landscape tells about the unpretentious life of a small village, located on the shores of a huge lake. The bright pre-sunset sun illuminates its strong wooden huts, standing against the backdrop of a spruce forest and overturned fishing boats with nets hung nearby on a palisade. The prosaic view of the village creates, however, the impression of joy and even some fabulousness of being.
A year later, in 1893, the artist began work on one of his largest paintings, Above Eternal Peace (1894, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). In this work, as in no other, in addition to the poetic beauty of eternal nature, the master's philosophical attitude to the frailty of human existence is felt.
In the picture we see a dilapidated wooden church, standing on a steep and deserted bank of a wide river that stretches to the horizon. Lead-purple clouds swirl over the church, and behind it a few trees cover the dreary churchyard with their branches bending under the sharp gusts of wind. Around the church it is completely deserted, only a dim light in its window gives an illusory hope for salvation. We observe the whole composition as if from behind and from above, this technique enhances the impression of loneliness, deep melancholy and impotence. The artist, as it were, directs the viewer into the distance and up, directly towards the cold sky. The painting was immediately bought by Pavel Tretyakov, which greatly pleased the painter.
The whole life of the artist was filled with sharp turns, both his mood and his fate. In the mid-1890s, one such turn of both occurred. Levitan, still living with Kuvshinnikova, was relaxing on one of the provincial manor estates located in a picturesque area. Here he met Anna Nikolaevna Turchaninova, who was vacationing at a dacha in the neighborhood, and immediately fell in love with her. Sofya Petrovna, in despair, even tried to commit suicide, but this did not stop the artist. He began a passionate and stormy romance with this woman, which was filled with great happiness and pain and various problems, such as falling in love with a painter eldest daughter Turchaninova Varvara.
After some time, Levitan again converges with his friend and becomes a frequent guest at the Chekhovs' dacha in Melikhovo. This did not stop the fact that both Anton Pavlovich and his sister Maria were in no hurry to share the joy of their friend's new passionate passion. The writer was extremely skeptical about the appearance of "bravura" in the new works of Isaac Ilyich.
The painting "Golden Autumn" (1895, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), for example, is very far from those melancholic and sad images autumn nature, so characteristic of early creativity Levitan. In a very bright, emphatically decorative work of the artist, one feels a tense and exciting feeling of happiness, which, it would seem, does not at all fit with the author's worldview.
In the same 1895, Levitan painted another “Volga” painting “Fresh Wind. Volga (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). The picture is also solved in an unusual for the artist color palette She seems to be pierced by the sun. Under dazzling white clouds, hovering in a bright blue sky, arguing with its purity with the waters of the river, painted sailing yachts sway, and behind them in the distance one can see a white steamer heading for the shore. The whole plot is permeated with a very cheerful major mood. Seagulls hovering low over the river add even more white spots to this timbre scale of upbeat emotions.
The picture, as never before, does not reflect any internal conflicts or philosophical reflections the author, only love of life and delight. Even despite the fact that the optimistic mood of the painter was sometimes replaced by bouts of severe depression and a desire to commit suicide, it is obvious that during this period of his life Levitan was full of hope and believed that he still had a lot of good ahead of him.
The atmosphere of the painting "March" (1895, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) is saturated with faith in the good. Soft loose snow is just beginning to melt under the rays of the spring sun, there is still no hint of the first foliage on the grayish tree trunks, thanks to which the birdhouse is clearly visible.
The canvas is filled with the expectation of summer, which portends long walks through the forest and meetings with loved ones. And now they came to visit only for a couple of hours, and near the entrance, a horse excited by running, harnessed to a modest sleigh, dutifully awaits them. In this landscape there is so much joy of life and hope for the best, as there will never be in any other painting by the artist. Levitan continued to visit the Chekhovs with great pleasure. In their house in Melikhovo, he creates a wonderfully moody landscape "Blossoming Apple Trees" (1896, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). The picture also refers to those few of his works that leave the viewer with a bright, major impression.
Around 1896, real recognition finally came to Levitan. His work has been successfully exhibited at international exhibition in Zurich. The Europeans were shocked by the amazing state of the landscapes of the Russian master.
Many friends advised the artist to visit the Russian North in order to capture its harsh cold images. The painter had the opportunity to go on such a long journey thanks to the funds he received from the sale of his latest works to Tretyakov. Levitan decides to go. But then, at the very last moment, unexpectedly for everyone, leaves not for Siberia, but for Finland.
Despite the fact that Finland is also a northern country with its exceptional nature, this journey did not please the artist. True, he brought home a few paintings.
For example, the canvas “In the North” (1896, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), which depicts a cold and sad landscape. Centuries-old fir trees stand alone under the arch of the autumn cloudy sky. The picture gives the impression of alienation and coldness, which the artist probably experienced in a foreign country.
At this time, the artist shows the first signs of his illness. Chekhov, having examined his friend in 1896, writes in his diary that Levitan has a clear enlargement of the aorta.
However, the artist did not stop his work. In his canvases, as never before, there was a thirst for life. Painting «Spring. Big Water ”(1897, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) became the pinnacle of Levitan’s spring lyrics. The thin trunks of young trees, immersed in clear water, stretch towards the light blue sky, as if washed by rain and reflected together with the trees in the waters of the overflowing river.
The onset of spring entails the awakening of nature, but now in its manifestations there is not so much hope for joy and warmth as hidden sadness and thoughts about the transience of life: before you have time to look back, summer will fly by, autumn will come, and after it winter.
Poor health forced the painter to take up his treatment. On the advice of Chekhov, he decides to go abroad again for treatment. The artist was attracted by the views of Mont Blanc, the peaks of the Apennines, but the doctors strictly forbade the painter to climb even the stairs. Trips to sketches in the mountains were under the strictest ban, but this did not stop Levitan. Unfortunately, violation of the recommendations of doctors led to another complication of his condition.
The artist soon returned to Russia, as he could not live long away from his native places. Ordinary, but infinitely native forests and rivers were more to the liking of the painter than beautiful and unprecedented European landscapes. The work "The last rays of the sun. Aspen Forest” (1897, private collection) became the master’s most amazing landscape in terms of color. The blue sky still peeps through the green foliage, but the sunset is already playing on the tree trunks with crimson flashes. A thick and damp grassy carpet gently covers the ground. The rays of the setting sun illuminated the forest in an unusually whimsical way, creating a light and upbeat mood, conveying the joy of being and fresh air, coupled with a pleasant evening fatigue. True, if the viewer carefully looks at the central part of the picture, then it suddenly seems that the reflections of the sunset are burning with painful burns on the bark of tired trees. Perhaps it was during this period that Levitan clearly began to realize the irreversibility of his state of health, which, in the end, led him to death.
The last rays of the sun. Aspen forest. 1897. 
Another blow was the death of a teacher beloved from the time of the school. In 1897, Savrasov was buried in Moscow. Of the last strength, Levitan nevertheless came to the memorial service to pay tribute to the memory of a person who meant so much to him.
Meanwhile, fame public acceptance artists have reached their zenith. The following year, in 1898, the Academy of Arts awarded Isaac Levitan the honorary title of academician. Almost a quarter of a century has passed since he was expelled from MUZHVIZ, offering only an insulting diploma of a “not cool” artist. And so, he again entered the building on Myasnitskaya, where he was now offered to lead a landscape workshop. Polenov still worked here, highly appreciating the work of his former student, and had been teaching him for a year. good friend Valentin Serov.
Levitan accepted the offer and, with his characteristic ingenuity and emotionality, took up a new business. The artist has transformed the workshop. By his order, several dozen trees were brought there, transplanted from the forest into tubs, shrubs, many spruce branches, grass and moss. Many eminent painters came to see the forest glade built by the painter inside the school. At first, the students of the master were perplexed, but gradually their new teacher passed on to them an amazing ability to see something subtly beautiful in an unremarkable routine.
Levitan continues to work, amazing landscapes come out from under his brush, but neither hope nor joy is felt in their atmosphere anymore. Many of the artist's latest works are filled with motives for leaving, the end of human life.
Among them, one can note the painting “Silence” (1898, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), which produces a painful and dreary impression. In the dark firmament, through the heavy lead clouds, the waning moon barely peeps out, under them arable lands and meadows stretch out, on which a quiet river glistens.
The landscape seems not just sleeping, but dead and only big bird in the distance makes its night flight. What caused such a painful mood of the author? It would seem, finally, in the life of Levitan there were no more worries, no resentment, no financial problems. He was loved and respected at the school by his colleagues and students. The Board of Trustees of MUZHVIZ was sympathetic to all his requirements. In his workshop, he set up not only a forest clearing, but also a chic greenhouse, which he himself created from dozens of flowers in pots.
The students of his class made great strides, the artist attracted all the talented youth who traveled with him to sketches. But the inconsolable sadness that haunted the painter almost all his life, although seasoned with an external touch of efficiency and purposefulness, found its way out in his works. For example, in the landscape "Twilight" (1899, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), the viewer sees a summer day that has finally ended, the haystacks standing in the field speak of the intensity of hard work. After sunset, almost nothing is visible around, the whole plot is saturated with deadly fatigue.
After the death of Pavel Tretyakov, Levitan was included by the teaching staff of MUZHVIZ in a commission engaged in perpetuating the memory of the great collector and philanthropist, some of whose acquisitions strangely began to disappear and appear in completely strangers. Perhaps at this time the painter felt the end great era when Russian painters had real connoisseurs of their work, for whom money was by no means important.
During his life, the artist suffered so much from poverty and humiliation that he always tried to help his students. He found simple painting orders for them or simply helped them with money from his own salary. Levitan did not get tired of working for young artists in front of the artistic council of exhibitions and was always worried about their work no less than for his own paintings.
Outwardly, Levatin continued active life, he taught, met with friends, even visited the Chekhovs in Yalta in 1899, but it seems that subconsciously the artist had already separated himself from this world. He already felt the approach own death, even spoke about this to Maria Pavlovna Chekhova, during their long walks along the Crimean coast.
The canvas "Summer Evening" (1900, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) conveys the mood of detachment with unusual sharpness. Here, over the outskirts, hung a piebald shadow. The sunlight that illuminates the autumn forest in the background of the picture is almost a stone's throw away, but the dirt road under the very outskirts will not lead there, it suddenly ends.
Despite premonitions, Levitan made plans. He agreed with Serov to spend the next summer with his relatives. He promised his students frequent trips to sketches in the spring. But neither one nor the other, he failed to carry out.
At the end of May 1900, the artist was bedridden by illness. Anna Nikolaevna Turchaninova immediately came to him, determined to put her beloved on his feet. She often sent letters to Chekhov, in which she described in detail the state of the artist's health, asked for advice, but she herself understood more and more clearly that all her efforts were powerless.
Isaac Ilyich Levitan died on July 22, 1900, just a few days before the age of forty. According to an unconfirmed diagnosis, the cause of death was rheumatic myocarditis.
And on world exhibition in Paris at that time his works were successfully exhibited.
Isaac Ilyich Levitan left after his death about forty unfinished landscapes found by relatives in his workshop. Levitan's older brother Abel Ilyich, according to the will of the deceased, destroyed many of his sketches, sketches, almost all letters, notes and diaries.
Isaac Ilyich Levitan (October 3 (15), 1860 or August 18 (30), 1860 - July 22 (August 4), 1900) - Russian artist, master of "mood landscape". Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1898).
Isaac Ilyich Levitan was born in the town of Kibarty, Mariampolsky district, Augustow province (since 1866 - Suwalki province), into an educated impoverished Jewish family. The date of birth is officially considered August 18 (30), 1860. Father Ilya (Elyashiv-Leib) Abramovich Levitan (1827-1877) came from a rabbinical family in the town of Kaidanova, notable for the coexistence of the Jewish and Scottish communities in Lithuania. Elyash studied at the yeshiva in Vilna. Being engaged in self-education, he independently mastered French and German. In Kovno, he taught these languages and then worked as a translator during the construction of a railway bridge, which was carried out by a French company.
In November 2010, interesting archival records about the family of Isaac Levitan were discovered. The found documents said that the artist's great-grandfather was called Abram, the grandfather was Leib Abramovich Levitan (c. 1791 - 1841). In the birth certificates of the children of Elyash - the daughter of Mikhle (born 07/18/1859) and the son of Abel Leib (born 01/09/1861 according to the old style) - the name of their mother appears: Basya Girshevna Levitan (1830-1875; some sources report the everyday version Berta Moiseevna Levitan), daughter of Zundele Girsh.
In addition to Isaac, three more children grew up in the family: brother Abel Leib (later took the name Adolf), sisters Teresa (married Teresa Ilyinichna Berchanskaya, born in 1856) and Mikhle (Emma Ilyinichna, born 07/18/1859 according to the old style ).
According to M. A. Rogov, Isaac Levitan could not have been born to Elyash's wife, Basya, in August 1860, 5 months before the birth of Abel Leib - which, perhaps, explains the lack of an archival record of his birth in this family and the subsequent secrecy both brothers. Isaac Levitan in fact could not be the son of Elyash and Basya, but adopted as the youngest son (although his own son Abel was younger) nephew - the eldest son of Elyash's younger brother, Khatskel Levitan (born in 1834), and his wife Dobra, named Itzik Leib Levitan (born 10/03/1860 according to the old style). The birth record of October 03, 1860 of Itzik-Leib Levitan, one of the sons of Khatskel Levitan and his wife Dobra, is located in open access, as well as other research data. On the contrary, there are no records of the birth of Teresa and Isaac Levitan in the family of Elyash Leib and Basya. Khatskel lived with his brother Elyash at least in 1868-1870.
One of the motives for indicating Abel to the elders and distorting the dates of birth could be the desire to guarantee his own son Abel exemption from military service according to the laws Russian Empire, as the eldest son in the family - especially after tragic event, when, as a result of tightening recruitment in 1852, one of the cousins of Isaac Levitan - Ber, the son of the butcher Herschel, who lived in the house of the Kagans, was taken into recruits.
The data on the birth of Isaac are not new: at the beginning of the 20th century, official art criticism believed that Isaac Levitan was born in 1861, but was younger son in the family: Adolf, who was called Levitan Sr. at the school, entered there two years earlier. In this case, as it seems to M. A. Rogov, the choice of the date of birth of the artist, indicated in the military document of the school (in which Abel and Isaac studied), in August is due to the requirement of his religious majority bar mitzvah by the beginning of the first school year, and how the date of birth was indicated on August 18, since documents for admission to the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture were submitted the day before, on August 17, in addition, 18 is a lucky number according to Jewish ideas. M. A. Rogov believes that the examples of naming children in honor of living relatives found in documents about the Levitan family testify to the Sephardic origin of the artist on the paternal side, and that the assimilation of Sephardim in Lithuania among the Ashkenazim in the 19th century led to the fact that Elyash refused rabbinical career.
This is part of a Wikipedia article used under the CC-BY-SA license. Full text of the article here →
