Tsar Alexander III (reigned 1881–1894) strengthened the Pale of Settlement Laws and ensured the removal of all Jewish people living in large cities in Russia, especially Moscow, St Petersburg and Kiev. Clearly life for many Russian Jews in the late 1800s was miserable, including for the Levitans. So the family wanted to move to Moscow… but Moscow was not within the Pale!!
Autumn Day Sokolniki 1879
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Still, Isaac and his brother’s artistic interests were encouraged and both boys enrolled in Moscow’s School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - Adolf in 1871 and Isaac in 1873. Sadly the children lost mum in 1875 and dad in 1877. Isaac was left penniless and homeless, sleeping either with relatives or in the Moscow Art School’s classrooms. Fortunately the School waived the rest of his tuition fees.
His best teacher took him on as an apprentice, to provide monetary aid. Alexei Savrasov (1830–1897) was a patient teacher who headed the Landscape Dept at the Moscow School of Painting. He was also arguably the most expressive of the Russian landscape painters of the later C19th.
Another inspiration was Savrasov’s successor Vasily Polenov (1844-1927), whose serene lyrical landscapes rubbed off on the young Levitan. During his ten years at the Art School, Levitan was a regular visitor at Polenov’s country house. There he drew, painted and developed warm friendships.
Golden Autumn Slobodka, 1889
State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
Other important influences on Levitan’s style included the Russian teacher Vasily Perov (1834–82), French painters of the Barbizon school of landscape painting, and poetic classical realist Camille Corot (1796-1875). Examine, for example, Autumn Day Sokolniki 1879 where a woman was walking carefree in the country side near Moscow. Levitan’s attitude towards nature was akin to the works of Anton Chekhov, who had become his friend. Autumn Day Sokolniki, painted at 19, was bought by art collector Pavel Tretyakov.
Autumn Landscape with Church, 1890
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
One of Levitan’s pastels featured beautiful autumn yellows against a dull backdrop of greys and other weak colours. The Autumn Landscape, painted in 1890, showed the church in the background.
Evening Church Bells 1892
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Pastoral landscapes, human-free, were characteristic of his work. Though his late work displayed Impressionist elements, his palette was generally muted and Savrasovian. For examples of his landscapes, see Secluded Monastery 1890. The Road to Vladimir 1892 was a rare example of social historical landscape and see evocative works like Evening Church Bells 1892, Golden Autumn 1895, Spring Flood 1897 and the small painting Reindeer 1895. All were bought by Pavel Tretyakov and are in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, a treasury of Russian fine art.
Above Eternal Peace 1894
Tretyakov Gallery
Levitan was an active participant in artistic life; he taught at the Moscow School of Painting, where had trained, was actively involved the Moscow Club of Literature and Art, and exhibited regularly with the Munich Secession (1892).
Isaac Levitan’s career lasted for c20 years only, but within this short time he created more than other Russian landscape painters. Levitan’s most famous late 1890s paintings include Evening on Volga, Spring High Water and others. Levitan did not join modern art and remained true to realism. See his quiet twilights, moon lit nights and sleeping villages eg Haystacks Twilight (1899) and Sunny Day (1898).
If his earlier works were intimate and lyrical, his mature art became philosophical, expressing his meditation about man and the world. His last works were increasingly filled with light, reflecting tranquillity and the eternal beauty of his beloved Russian Motherland. These pictures were loved by the intellectuals of the time, for they represented the purest specimen of the Russian mood landscape.
Levitan was unmarried, though women liked him. In May 1900 he died at 39 and was buried in Moscow's old Jewish cemetery. He left 40 unfinished paintings and 300 sketches.
Reindeer 1895
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The Jewish population in Russia had grown to 5.6 million by the turn of the century, home of my own family. So I was always a Russian tragic, now even more so. The work of Isaac Levitan belonged to the Golden Age of Russian culture, comparable with the works of such classics like Anton Chekhov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Konstantin Stanislavsky. A Tel Aviv street was named after Isaac Levitan. Lots of his works, less known in Russia today, are now displayed in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Still, Isaac and his brother’s artistic interests were encouraged and both boys enrolled in Moscow’s School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture - Adolf in 1871 and Isaac in 1873. Sadly the children lost mum in 1875 and dad in 1877. Isaac was left penniless and homeless, sleeping either with relatives or in the Moscow Art School’s classrooms. Fortunately the School waived the rest of his tuition fees.
His best teacher took him on as an apprentice, to provide monetary aid. Alexei Savrasov (1830–1897) was a patient teacher who headed the Landscape Dept at the Moscow School of Painting. He was also arguably the most expressive of the Russian landscape painters of the later C19th.
Another inspiration was Savrasov’s successor Vasily Polenov (1844-1927), whose serene lyrical landscapes rubbed off on the young Levitan. During his ten years at the Art School, Levitan was a regular visitor at Polenov’s country house. There he drew, painted and developed warm friendships.
State Russian Museum, St Petersburg
Other important influences on Levitan’s style included the Russian teacher Vasily Perov (1834–82), French painters of the Barbizon school of landscape painting, and poetic classical realist Camille Corot (1796-1875). Examine, for example, Autumn Day Sokolniki 1879 where a woman was walking carefree in the country side near Moscow. Levitan’s attitude towards nature was akin to the works of Anton Chekhov, who had become his friend. Autumn Day Sokolniki, painted at 19, was bought by art collector Pavel Tretyakov.
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Of course Levitan’s passion for poetry and music were very important. Plus throughout his short life he was prone to depression. Out of these complex experiences, Levitan’s "mood landscapes" took on a poetic and emotional quality.
Levitan first showed his work at an exhibition with Moscow’s Itinerant Wanderers, receiving his first recognition from the press. By 1884 the Wanderers had offered Levitan full membership in their group, so he could exhibit regularly.
Even though Savrasov was fired as a lecturer due to his alcoholism, Levitan continued to seek his advice. In 1883, Levitan was ready to graduate and expected to receive a first-class honour for one of his best landscape paintings. The diploma did not come but later Levitan began teaching landscape painting at the Moscow School of Painting.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
In the mid 1880s Levitan’s finances improved. One of the best landscape artists among the progressive Itinerant Wanderers, his main contribution to Russian art was atmospheric landscape, mastering colour and shade. Although the depiction of light was crucial to his compositions, Levitan was a realist rather than an Impressionist.
Levitan was interested in the writings of the new intellectual luminaries, writing to Sergei Diaghilev that he lay for days in a forest and read the pessimistic German philosopher Schopenhauer. So we might have expected a hushed, almost melancholic reverie. Above the Eternal Peace 1894 showed the artist’s meditations about the transience of human being. Levitan painted the infamous road, along which convicts were marched to Siberia.
Tretyakov Gallery
Levitan was an active participant in artistic life; he taught at the Moscow School of Painting, where had trained, was actively involved the Moscow Club of Literature and Art, and exhibited regularly with the Munich Secession (1892).
Isaac Levitan’s career lasted for c20 years only, but within this short time he created more than other Russian landscape painters. Levitan’s most famous late 1890s paintings include Evening on Volga, Spring High Water and others. Levitan did not join modern art and remained true to realism. See his quiet twilights, moon lit nights and sleeping villages eg Haystacks Twilight (1899) and Sunny Day (1898).
If his earlier works were intimate and lyrical, his mature art became philosophical, expressing his meditation about man and the world. His last works were increasingly filled with light, reflecting tranquillity and the eternal beauty of his beloved Russian Motherland. These pictures were loved by the intellectuals of the time, for they represented the purest specimen of the Russian mood landscape.
Levitan was unmarried, though women liked him. In May 1900 he died at 39 and was buried in Moscow's old Jewish cemetery. He left 40 unfinished paintings and 300 sketches.
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The Jewish population in Russia had grown to 5.6 million by the turn of the century, home of my own family. So I was always a Russian tragic, now even more so. The work of Isaac Levitan belonged to the Golden Age of Russian culture, comparable with the works of such classics like Anton Chekhov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Konstantin Stanislavsky. A Tel Aviv street was named after Isaac Levitan. Lots of his works, less known in Russia today, are now displayed in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Isaac Levitan, photographed early 1880s
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