Faces of Levitan. We tell the stories of 10 portraits of a genius landscape painter and a handsome man painted
“Levitan generally had rare beauty, - tells the biographer of the artist Ivan Evdokimov. - The features of his swarthy face, as if tanned from the sun, were amazingly correct and subtle. The young man's dark hair curled. But the main charm of Levitan was in his huge, deep, black and sad eyes. Such rare in beauty and expressiveness eyes could not be overlooked even in a large crowd. ”
Isaac Levitan.Self portrait, 1885.Tretyakov Gallery
Levitan was the owner of the appearance not only beautiful, but also extremely colorful and memorable. They looked at him, tall and slender, on the street. Somewhere in the theater, contemporaries recalled, all the feminine looks, until the lights went out and the curtain opened, rushed to Levitan. At railway stations, croquet sites, summer open-air concerts, the appearance of Levitan led to the inevitable consequence: his neck was curled. Women who fell in love with the artist (and there were dozens of them) lost sleep and peace. Levitanov’s external appeal among his acquaintances became a byword, the artist’s friend Anton Chekhov sneered in letters: “I will come to you, beautiful, like Levitan”.
In a word, there is nothing surprising in the fact that Levitan was always willingly painted and painted - his classmates Nikolay Chekhoin and Alexey Stepanovhis teacher Vasily Polenovhis contemporaryValentin Serov. Arthive decided: a close look at the portraits of Levitan, created at different times and by different people, could be a good occasion along the way to tell about the artist’s life itself and his surroundings.
Levitan was the owner of the appearance not only beautiful, but also extremely colorful and memorable. They looked at him, tall and slender, on the street. Somewhere in the theater, contemporaries recalled, all the feminine looks, until the lights went out and the curtain opened, rushed to Levitan. At railway stations, croquet sites, summer open-air concerts, the appearance of Levitan led to the inevitable consequence: his neck was curled. Women who fell in love with the artist (and there were dozens of them) lost sleep and peace. Levitanov’s external appeal among his acquaintances became a byword, the artist’s friend Anton Chekhov sneered in letters: “I will come to you, beautiful, like Levitan”.
In a word, there is nothing surprising in the fact that Levitan was always willingly painted and painted - his classmates Nikolay Chekhoin and Alexey Stepanovhis teacher Vasily Polenovhis contemporaryValentin Serov. Arthive decided: a close look at the portraits of Levitan, created at different times and by different people, could be a good occasion along the way to tell about the artist’s life itself and his surroundings.
Amplitude: sick Levitan
Who is author? Nikolay Chekhov
Circumstances of the creation. This sketch was made by Levitan's classmate at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture Nikolay Chekhov, the elder brother of the writer.
In general, Levitan was often ill - the main reason for this was his orphaned, sometimes homeless and at first completely impoverished youth. He managed to catch typhus twice in his life. For the first time - at the age of 17, simultaneously with his father. Compassionate neighbors then took Elyash (Ilya) and Isaak Levitanov, who were delirious, to different Moscow hospitals, and Isaac alone returned from there - his father died. The second typhus in the late 1890s will exacerbate Levitan’s heart disease, who was under forty, and will bring his death closer. Between these extreme cases, Levitan regularly suffered from painful, with a strong suicidal component, depression. His surviving lettersoverwhelmed by complaints of melancholy, dissatisfaction with oneself, inability to embody the beauty of nature in its entirety, personal disorder.
But this sketch-sketch of Nikolai Chekhov, apparently, is associated with another disease. The 25-year-old Levitan, who still did not have stable incomes, was forced to take an order he didn’t want — to write a sketch of the Moscow River with barges frozen in the water at the Krasnokholmsky Bridge. Levitan did not like winter and hardly wrote, but money was needed. In severe frost Levitan in a thin coat and cold boots worked in a piercing wind and earned inflammation of the periosteum (biographers, however, do not specify the localization of the inflammation, they only say that the disease was difficult). But what is interesting: both in the hospital and then in the hotel, where the recovering landscape painter was transported, his friends, painters, and Nesterov and Stepanov, the architect Shekhtel, the Chekhov brothers, touchingly ordered the order. No wonder Ilya Ostroukhov said that Levitan is that rare person who has no enemies at all.
It seems that on duty at the bedside of Levitan, Nikolai Chekhov (6 years ago, by the way, wrote a female figure in Levitan’s painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki” - see details) and made this portrait. Chekhov was not an outstanding portrait painter. This image, as we see, is too generalizing and idealizing the features of Levitan, but it is curious as a document. Only four years later, in 1889, Nikolai Chekhov himself would not be: at 31, he would die from tuberculosis. The “core” Isaac outlives the friend “consumptive” for 11 years.
Who is author? Nikolay Chekhov
Circumstances of the creation. This sketch was made by Levitan's classmate at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture Nikolay Chekhov, the elder brother of the writer.
In general, Levitan was often ill - the main reason for this was his orphaned, sometimes homeless and at first completely impoverished youth. He managed to catch typhus twice in his life. For the first time - at the age of 17, simultaneously with his father. Compassionate neighbors then took Elyash (Ilya) and Isaak Levitanov, who were delirious, to different Moscow hospitals, and Isaac alone returned from there - his father died. The second typhus in the late 1890s will exacerbate Levitan’s heart disease, who was under forty, and will bring his death closer. Between these extreme cases, Levitan regularly suffered from painful, with a strong suicidal component, depression. His surviving lettersoverwhelmed by complaints of melancholy, dissatisfaction with oneself, inability to embody the beauty of nature in its entirety, personal disorder.
But this sketch-sketch of Nikolai Chekhov, apparently, is associated with another disease. The 25-year-old Levitan, who still did not have stable incomes, was forced to take an order he didn’t want — to write a sketch of the Moscow River with barges frozen in the water at the Krasnokholmsky Bridge. Levitan did not like winter and hardly wrote, but money was needed. In severe frost Levitan in a thin coat and cold boots worked in a piercing wind and earned inflammation of the periosteum (biographers, however, do not specify the localization of the inflammation, they only say that the disease was difficult). But what is interesting: both in the hospital and then in the hotel, where the recovering landscape painter was transported, his friends, painters, and Nesterov and Stepanov, the architect Shekhtel, the Chekhov brothers, touchingly ordered the order. No wonder Ilya Ostroukhov said that Levitan is that rare person who has no enemies at all.
It seems that on duty at the bedside of Levitan, Nikolai Chekhov (6 years ago, by the way, wrote a female figure in Levitan’s painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki” - see details) and made this portrait. Chekhov was not an outstanding portrait painter. This image, as we see, is too generalizing and idealizing the features of Levitan, but it is curious as a document. Only four years later, in 1889, Nikolai Chekhov himself would not be: at 31, he would die from tuberculosis. The “core” Isaac outlives the friend “consumptive” for 11 years.
Portrait Of I. I. Levitan. Drawing signed by Levitan
1888, 21×13 cm
Amplitude: Levitan is pensive
Who is author? Alexey Stepanov
Circumstances of the creation. This is another “friendly” portrait, painted three years after Chekhov’s sketch. He was made by a fellow student of Levitan, animal artist Alexei Stepanov. After graduating from college, both of them settled in the so-called "furniture" - scantily, but still with a claim, the furnished rooms of the England Hotel. The mocking Anton Chekhov joked that this would be their "English period of creation." In "England" it was dark, smoky and terribly noisy. Friends had to open the curtains wider, letting in the light, and, conversely, better to hang and shut the doors with any suitable rag - so that intrusive extraneous noise would not interfere with the work. Both Levitan and Stepanov were not rich, both had a difficult childhood behind them - in a word, they had a lot in common. But what distinguished the two landscape painters is that Levitan always worked in the field of pure landscape, without deviating to the genre (he was long remembered by “unnecessary woman” inscribed by Nikolai Chekhov - so their teacher scolded after the exhibition Savrasov), while Stepanov generously populated his landscapes with animals and people. They are in the winter landscape Levitan once “attached” a wolf. However, he did it, albeit skillfully, but in vain: Levitan had a rare ability to make the landscape “speak” — he did not need any people, animals, or even birds. Teacher Alexei Savrasov inspired Levitan: “You must learn to write so that the lark on the canvas is not visible, and his singing is heard”.
Who is author? Alexey Stepanov
Circumstances of the creation. This is another “friendly” portrait, painted three years after Chekhov’s sketch. He was made by a fellow student of Levitan, animal artist Alexei Stepanov. After graduating from college, both of them settled in the so-called "furniture" - scantily, but still with a claim, the furnished rooms of the England Hotel. The mocking Anton Chekhov joked that this would be their "English period of creation." In "England" it was dark, smoky and terribly noisy. Friends had to open the curtains wider, letting in the light, and, conversely, better to hang and shut the doors with any suitable rag - so that intrusive extraneous noise would not interfere with the work. Both Levitan and Stepanov were not rich, both had a difficult childhood behind them - in a word, they had a lot in common. But what distinguished the two landscape painters is that Levitan always worked in the field of pure landscape, without deviating to the genre (he was long remembered by “unnecessary woman” inscribed by Nikolai Chekhov - so their teacher scolded after the exhibition Savrasov), while Stepanov generously populated his landscapes with animals and people. They are in the winter landscape Levitan once “attached” a wolf. However, he did it, albeit skillfully, but in vain: Levitan had a rare ability to make the landscape “speak” — he did not need any people, animals, or even birds. Teacher Alexei Savrasov inspired Levitan: “You must learn to write so that the lark on the canvas is not visible, and his singing is heard”.
Portrait of Isaac Levitan
1891, 67×54 cm
Amplitude: Levitan Shchegol
Who is author? Vasily Polenov
Circumstances of the creation. When in 1882, the talented, but from year to year more and more strong drinker and not shy to voice his unpleasant opinions Alexei Savrasov quietly survived from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, in his place - to head the landscape class - came Vasily Polenov. Levitan was going to leave the school after his teacher: he spent 8 years there, he was “cut off” a large silver medal (the reason was hostility to Savrasov and the anti-Semitism that took place in the school), it was time to go to free bread. But Levitan suddenly remained. Until recently, it seemed to him that in the field of landscape no one but Savrasov was able to give him anything in the profession, but it suddenly turned out that the new teacher Polenov was not only an interesting artist, but also a certified lawyer who knew several languages perfectly and traveled a lot around the world - can teach Levitan much. Savrasov was not an outstanding colorist, and Polenov was. He knew how paints interact, was interested in their chemistry, knew how to make the paint layer extremely durable and sought out pure festive colors from his students, and told inquisitive Levitan about barbizonians and impressionists. After meeting Polenov in Levitan's painting, there were fewer red and dark gray shades, he began to dare to afford a bright palette more boldly.
Polenov’s favorites at the school were Levitan and Konstantin Korovin. All three continued to communicate after school. The restless, yearning Levitan society of Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov acted soothingly. And in his darkest moments, Levitan sometimes turned to him in letters asking him to allow him to come hunting in his estate. And Polenov often used Levitan as a model.
Levitan in this portrait of Polenov is a little over thirty. He looks away and crossed his arms over his chest. Any psychologist will say that this gesture is a manifestation of the fact that a person "closes". That’s how Levitan was - the door to his personal life or to the depths of his personality remained closed for almost everyone, he was distinguished by external restraint and, as Alexander Benois wrote, “eastern importance”. Let us pay attention to how dandy Levitan in Polenov’s portrait is dressed: a black fine frock coat, a snow-white starch collar and cuffs, a large cufflink, a tie (Levitan knew how to tie ties in some special ways).
The dandy has always lived in Levitan, and therefore in his youth he was especially depressed by his unchanged (due to uniqueness) checkered jacket, smeared with paint and rubbed elbows, short trousers, a flashy red shirt that Levitan was forced to wear all summer, the last shoes that dried out after of how he wrote studies in the swamp. Even at his debut exhibition, where his picture will be bought for the first time Tretyakov, 19-year-old Levitan came in clothes from someone else’s shoulder - a frock coat, hastily bought in a fancy dress shop - and was terribly embarrassed of this, he was by nature painfully neat, loved beautiful clothes. Therefore, as soon as Levitan got money, he began to force - he bought an expensive cane, for example, or shoes one less number - so they gracefully fit the foot. And his sister Teresa, if she was able to successfully sell her brother’s sketch, for the money earned, bought Levitan a thin shirt and cologne - as he liked, with the smell of Reseda. By thirty, his financial situation improved slightly and Levitan delighted others with his somewhat even picture elegance. The writer and translator Tatyana Schepkina-Kupernik, for example, recalled his delightful velvet blouses that set off a bright appearance.
Who is author? Vasily Polenov
Circumstances of the creation. When in 1882, the talented, but from year to year more and more strong drinker and not shy to voice his unpleasant opinions Alexei Savrasov quietly survived from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, in his place - to head the landscape class - came Vasily Polenov. Levitan was going to leave the school after his teacher: he spent 8 years there, he was “cut off” a large silver medal (the reason was hostility to Savrasov and the anti-Semitism that took place in the school), it was time to go to free bread. But Levitan suddenly remained. Until recently, it seemed to him that in the field of landscape no one but Savrasov was able to give him anything in the profession, but it suddenly turned out that the new teacher Polenov was not only an interesting artist, but also a certified lawyer who knew several languages perfectly and traveled a lot around the world - can teach Levitan much. Savrasov was not an outstanding colorist, and Polenov was. He knew how paints interact, was interested in their chemistry, knew how to make the paint layer extremely durable and sought out pure festive colors from his students, and told inquisitive Levitan about barbizonians and impressionists. After meeting Polenov in Levitan's painting, there were fewer red and dark gray shades, he began to dare to afford a bright palette more boldly.
Polenov’s favorites at the school were Levitan and Konstantin Korovin. All three continued to communicate after school. The restless, yearning Levitan society of Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov acted soothingly. And in his darkest moments, Levitan sometimes turned to him in letters asking him to allow him to come hunting in his estate. And Polenov often used Levitan as a model.
Levitan in this portrait of Polenov is a little over thirty. He looks away and crossed his arms over his chest. Any psychologist will say that this gesture is a manifestation of the fact that a person "closes". That’s how Levitan was - the door to his personal life or to the depths of his personality remained closed for almost everyone, he was distinguished by external restraint and, as Alexander Benois wrote, “eastern importance”. Let us pay attention to how dandy Levitan in Polenov’s portrait is dressed: a black fine frock coat, a snow-white starch collar and cuffs, a large cufflink, a tie (Levitan knew how to tie ties in some special ways).
The dandy has always lived in Levitan, and therefore in his youth he was especially depressed by his unchanged (due to uniqueness) checkered jacket, smeared with paint and rubbed elbows, short trousers, a flashy red shirt that Levitan was forced to wear all summer, the last shoes that dried out after of how he wrote studies in the swamp. Even at his debut exhibition, where his picture will be bought for the first time Tretyakov, 19-year-old Levitan came in clothes from someone else’s shoulder - a frock coat, hastily bought in a fancy dress shop - and was terribly embarrassed of this, he was by nature painfully neat, loved beautiful clothes. Therefore, as soon as Levitan got money, he began to force - he bought an expensive cane, for example, or shoes one less number - so they gracefully fit the foot. And his sister Teresa, if she was able to successfully sell her brother’s sketch, for the money earned, bought Levitan a thin shirt and cologne - as he liked, with the smell of Reseda. By thirty, his financial situation improved slightly and Levitan delighted others with his somewhat even picture elegance. The writer and translator Tatyana Schepkina-Kupernik, for example, recalled his delightful velvet blouses that set off a bright appearance.
Amplitude: Levitan - Eastern Sage
Who is author? Vasily Polenov
Circumstances of the creation. Polenov worked for many years on a work that he himself, his parents and friends, should have become his main business - a huge picture from the life of Christ (we now know this work under the title “Christ and the Sinner”). The artist was interested in the historical Christ - not that ideally beautiful, the image of which was given to humanity by the paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque, but such as He could be in reality. Sketches and preliminary works for "Christ and the Sinner" Polenova made countless. For Jesus, his beloved disciples, Korovin and Levitan, posed for him, both of their profile portraits are preserved. But if you set the goal of complete plausibility, it should be recognized that the Jew (and also the grandson of the rabbi) Levitan looked like a model for the figure of Christ and more reliable and organic than Korovin. In the final version of Polenov’s painting (and in his other paintings of the gospel series) Levitan’s appearance is easily read.
It is interesting that initially in "Christ and the Sinner" Levitan, from which Polenov wrote the Savior, as in this sketch, was supposed to be in a headdress - it was impossible otherwise under the scorching Palestinian sun, not without reason all the other characters are depicted with their heads covered. But "Christ in a hat" greatly outraged mother Polenov, a powerful woman, a little nonsense and who had a huge influence on her son: it was against the picturesque tradition, neither Raphael nor Rubens allowed themselves this! And at the last moment Polenov flinched and left the Levitan without a headdress in the big picture.
Who is author? Vasily Polenov
Circumstances of the creation. Polenov worked for many years on a work that he himself, his parents and friends, should have become his main business - a huge picture from the life of Christ (we now know this work under the title “Christ and the Sinner”). The artist was interested in the historical Christ - not that ideally beautiful, the image of which was given to humanity by the paintings of the Renaissance and Baroque, but such as He could be in reality. Sketches and preliminary works for "Christ and the Sinner" Polenova made countless. For Jesus, his beloved disciples, Korovin and Levitan, posed for him, both of their profile portraits are preserved. But if you set the goal of complete plausibility, it should be recognized that the Jew (and also the grandson of the rabbi) Levitan looked like a model for the figure of Christ and more reliable and organic than Korovin. In the final version of Polenov’s painting (and in his other paintings of the gospel series) Levitan’s appearance is easily read.
It is interesting that initially in "Christ and the Sinner" Levitan, from which Polenov wrote the Savior, as in this sketch, was supposed to be in a headdress - it was impossible otherwise under the scorching Palestinian sun, not without reason all the other characters are depicted with their heads covered. But "Christ in a hat" greatly outraged mother Polenov, a powerful woman, a little nonsense and who had a huge influence on her son: it was against the picturesque tradition, neither Raphael nor Rubens allowed themselves this! And at the last moment Polenov flinched and left the Levitan without a headdress in the big picture.
Christ and the sinner (Who is without a sin?)
1888, 325×611 cm
Amplitude: Levitan Bedouin
Who is author? Vasily Polenov, Sergey Vinogradov
Circumstances of the creation. Since 1884, Vasily Polenov has been laying an interesting tradition of working with students and friends right at home: on Thursdays Polenovs had “drawing Thursdays” and on Sundays “watercolor mornings”. The regulars of such meetings were young people: Konstantin and SergeiKorovin, Ilya Ostroukhov, Sergey VinogradovIsaac Levitan Mikhail Nesterov, Leonid Pasternak, Elena Polenovaand others.
Who more often than others became a model? Undoubtedly - the picturesque Levitan itself. Vasily Polenov, preparing for biblical paintings, traveled to Palestine and brought oriental clothes from travels that could be useful to him in his work. In one of the creative meetings, Levitan was dressed up in a Bedouin costume, and the rest of the visitors on "Drawing Thursday", including the owner of the house, surrounded the reincarnated landscape painter and concentrated on pencils.
The image of the Bedouin Levitanu really went, the artist seemed to include a mysterious "call of the ancestors." A friend of Levitan Tatyana Schepkina-Kupernik described him like this: “A very interesting matte-pale face, completely from a Velasquez portrait, slightly curly dark hair, a high forehead,“ velvet eyes ”, a pointed beard: a Semitic type in its most noble expression - Arabic-Spanish”.
In the summer of 1885 and 1886, Levitan continued his transformation into a Bedouin, but for a different purpose. He and Anton Chekhov, a guest in the Babkino estate near Moscow, arranged hilarious performances, dressed up as Bedouins. At first they were wrapped up with sheets and Levitan, under the laughter of those around him, taught Chekhov how to “walk as a Bedouin”. Then the action itself began. The Bedouin-Chekhov, taking a gun, hid in the bushes, and the Bedouin-Levitan, riding a donkey (which the owners of the estate kept for their children), slowly circled the meadow, choosing a place for “prayer” for a long time. Then Levitan climbed down from the donkey, fell to the ground and began to "pray", making loud mournful throat sounds. Meanwhile, a Bedouin killer was slowly crawling out of the bushes in his direction on his belly. On the most shrill and sharp note, the Bedouin's prayer was interrupted by a well-aimed Chekhov shot. The people around were not just laughing - they were rolling on the grass and clutching their bellies. Levitan tumbled back, his “corpse” was loaded onto a stretcher, and the next comedy act began - a funeral. The “foolishness” of the Babkin years remained for Levitan one of their happiest memories.
Who is author? Vasily Polenov, Sergey Vinogradov
Circumstances of the creation. Since 1884, Vasily Polenov has been laying an interesting tradition of working with students and friends right at home: on Thursdays Polenovs had “drawing Thursdays” and on Sundays “watercolor mornings”. The regulars of such meetings were young people: Konstantin and SergeiKorovin, Ilya Ostroukhov, Sergey VinogradovIsaac Levitan Mikhail Nesterov, Leonid Pasternak, Elena Polenovaand others.
Who more often than others became a model? Undoubtedly - the picturesque Levitan itself. Vasily Polenov, preparing for biblical paintings, traveled to Palestine and brought oriental clothes from travels that could be useful to him in his work. In one of the creative meetings, Levitan was dressed up in a Bedouin costume, and the rest of the visitors on "Drawing Thursday", including the owner of the house, surrounded the reincarnated landscape painter and concentrated on pencils.
The image of the Bedouin Levitanu really went, the artist seemed to include a mysterious "call of the ancestors." A friend of Levitan Tatyana Schepkina-Kupernik described him like this: “A very interesting matte-pale face, completely from a Velasquez portrait, slightly curly dark hair, a high forehead,“ velvet eyes ”, a pointed beard: a Semitic type in its most noble expression - Arabic-Spanish”.
In the summer of 1885 and 1886, Levitan continued his transformation into a Bedouin, but for a different purpose. He and Anton Chekhov, a guest in the Babkino estate near Moscow, arranged hilarious performances, dressed up as Bedouins. At first they were wrapped up with sheets and Levitan, under the laughter of those around him, taught Chekhov how to “walk as a Bedouin”. Then the action itself began. The Bedouin-Chekhov, taking a gun, hid in the bushes, and the Bedouin-Levitan, riding a donkey (which the owners of the estate kept for their children), slowly circled the meadow, choosing a place for “prayer” for a long time. Then Levitan climbed down from the donkey, fell to the ground and began to "pray", making loud mournful throat sounds. Meanwhile, a Bedouin killer was slowly crawling out of the bushes in his direction on his belly. On the most shrill and sharp note, the Bedouin's prayer was interrupted by a well-aimed Chekhov shot. The people around were not just laughing - they were rolling on the grass and clutching their bellies. Levitan tumbled back, his “corpse” was loaded onto a stretcher, and the next comedy act began - a funeral. The “foolishness” of the Babkin years remained for Levitan one of their happiest memories.
Portrait of the artist Isaac Levitan
1893, 82×86 cm
Amplitude: Levitan is both a celebrity and an outcast
Who is author? Valentin Serov
Circumstances of the creation. In 1892, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich became the Governor-General of Moscow; one of his first decisions was the eviction of all Jewish artisans from the city. Zealous officials, fueling the hysteria of anti-Semitism, handed Levitan and his relatives an order to leave Moscow. So it was already more than ten years ago, when the Narodnaya Volya attempted to attack the tsar, and the Jews were again appointed by the extreme: but then Levitan expelled from Moscow was an unknown 19-year-old student, there was no one to intercede for him. And now from Moscow the artist with all-Russian fame was expelled, who received his first fame outside the country.
Influential people were troubling for Levitan, including Tretyakov, whose gallery already contained many Levitan masterpieces, and by the end of the year Levitan returned to Moscow, in his outbuilding studio in Trekhsvyatitelny Lane, provided to him by a fan of his work, industrialist and philanthropist Sergei Morozov. On the second floor of this house, climbing a twisted ladder, the artist Valentin Serov came to paint a portrait of Levitan.
The unsightly story of the expulsion of Levitan was known to Serov, a man of great nobility and exceptional moral scrupulousness. The fact that he planned to paint a portrait of Levitan precisely at this difficult time for a landscape painter can be regarded as “An act of moral support, a desire to protect a colleague from the unjust actions of the Moscow authorities- writes the biographer of Serov, Valentin Kudrya, - Serov finished the portrait, realizing that he, perhaps, was able to reflect the inner world of Levitan, his characteristic sadness and melancholy. It was usually difficult to give hands, but this time the artistry of the model was emphasized by a carelessly lowered hand with thin, expressive fingers ”.
Who is author? Valentin Serov
Circumstances of the creation. In 1892, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich became the Governor-General of Moscow; one of his first decisions was the eviction of all Jewish artisans from the city. Zealous officials, fueling the hysteria of anti-Semitism, handed Levitan and his relatives an order to leave Moscow. So it was already more than ten years ago, when the Narodnaya Volya attempted to attack the tsar, and the Jews were again appointed by the extreme: but then Levitan expelled from Moscow was an unknown 19-year-old student, there was no one to intercede for him. And now from Moscow the artist with all-Russian fame was expelled, who received his first fame outside the country.
Influential people were troubling for Levitan, including Tretyakov, whose gallery already contained many Levitan masterpieces, and by the end of the year Levitan returned to Moscow, in his outbuilding studio in Trekhsvyatitelny Lane, provided to him by a fan of his work, industrialist and philanthropist Sergei Morozov. On the second floor of this house, climbing a twisted ladder, the artist Valentin Serov came to paint a portrait of Levitan.
The unsightly story of the expulsion of Levitan was known to Serov, a man of great nobility and exceptional moral scrupulousness. The fact that he planned to paint a portrait of Levitan precisely at this difficult time for a landscape painter can be regarded as “An act of moral support, a desire to protect a colleague from the unjust actions of the Moscow authorities- writes the biographer of Serov, Valentin Kudrya, - Serov finished the portrait, realizing that he, perhaps, was able to reflect the inner world of Levitan, his characteristic sadness and melancholy. It was usually difficult to give hands, but this time the artistry of the model was emphasized by a carelessly lowered hand with thin, expressive fingers ”.
Isaac Levitan poses for Valentin Serov in his workshop in Trekhsvyatitelny Lane. The beginning of the 1890s. Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
Self-portrait
1890-th
, 39×58 cm
Amplitude: Man in the face of death
Who is author? Isaac Levitan
Circumstances of the creation. The last self-portrait was painted by Levitan about a year before his death - in 1899. By this time, Levitan already knows that he is doomed.
In March 1897, still hoping that his heart ailment could be reversible and non-fatal, he asked a friend Anton Chekhov for a consultation. Levitan's letter of February 8, 1897 was written in the usual lyric-ernic, familiarly mocking manner for their correspondence:
«The other day I nearly fell over again and, having recovered a little, now I am thinking of arranging a consultation at home, led by Ostroumov, and no further than the other day. Could you call on Levitan as a decent person, in general, and, by the way, advise how to arrange all this. Do you hear, asp? Your Shmul. "
Chekhov came with his stethoscope, listened attentively and tapped, joked as usual, tried to cheer Levitan. But the architect Shekhtel soon reported: “The thing is bad. His heart is not beating, blowing. Instead of knock-knock sound, pf-knock is heard. This is called in medicine "noise with the first time" ".
At least three times earlier trying to take his own life, while realizing the real danger Levitan was in no hurry to give up. He now taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, in the same class where he had once met Savrasov, his students were supposed to make their debut at the Traveling Exhibition, and Levitan was more worried about them than about himself. “With failed eyes, bald prematurely, with a tortured face, with a wand in his hands, two steps later restingth, - describes Ivan Evdokimov Levitan last year of life, - he went to Petersburg, to the opening day. So it was in everything, always - selflessly, without looking back. ”.
In December 1899 (the self-portrait was already completed by this time) Levitan went to meet the new 1900th, the last year for himself in Yalta, to Chekhov. Climbing the mountain with Chekhov’s sister Masha, who many years ago had made an offer of marriage, Levitan said: “I need it so much higher, where the air is easier, where to breathe well, Marie! I don’t feel like dying. How scary to die ... And how heartache ... "
Who is author? Isaac Levitan
Circumstances of the creation. The last self-portrait was painted by Levitan about a year before his death - in 1899. By this time, Levitan already knows that he is doomed.
In March 1897, still hoping that his heart ailment could be reversible and non-fatal, he asked a friend Anton Chekhov for a consultation. Levitan's letter of February 8, 1897 was written in the usual lyric-ernic, familiarly mocking manner for their correspondence:
«The other day I nearly fell over again and, having recovered a little, now I am thinking of arranging a consultation at home, led by Ostroumov, and no further than the other day. Could you call on Levitan as a decent person, in general, and, by the way, advise how to arrange all this. Do you hear, asp? Your Shmul. "
Chekhov came with his stethoscope, listened attentively and tapped, joked as usual, tried to cheer Levitan. But the architect Shekhtel soon reported: “The thing is bad. His heart is not beating, blowing. Instead of knock-knock sound, pf-knock is heard. This is called in medicine "noise with the first time" ".
At least three times earlier trying to take his own life, while realizing the real danger Levitan was in no hurry to give up. He now taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, in the same class where he had once met Savrasov, his students were supposed to make their debut at the Traveling Exhibition, and Levitan was more worried about them than about himself. “With failed eyes, bald prematurely, with a tortured face, with a wand in his hands, two steps later restingth, - describes Ivan Evdokimov Levitan last year of life, - he went to Petersburg, to the opening day. So it was in everything, always - selflessly, without looking back. ”.
In December 1899 (the self-portrait was already completed by this time) Levitan went to meet the new 1900th, the last year for himself in Yalta, to Chekhov. Climbing the mountain with Chekhov’s sister Masha, who many years ago had made an offer of marriage, Levitan said: “I need it so much higher, where the air is easier, where to breathe well, Marie! I don’t feel like dying. How scary to die ... And how heartache ... "
Portrait of Isaac Levitan
1900-th
, 100×64 cm
Amplitude: Levitan Ghost
Who is author? Valentin Serov
Circumstances of the creation. Valentin Serov completed this pastel portrait when Levitan was dead for about a year. The previous Serov portrait had a good press and earned a lot of eulogies from critics and the public, and - what happens infrequently - the model itself. Artist Vladimir Sokolov, one of the students of Levitan, conveyed the words of his teacher: “This is an amazing thing! Serov is an amazing artist. I am sure that my portrait of his work will be later in the Tretyakov Gallery ”. But, surprisingly, the work of the perfectionist Serov himself did not bring satisfaction, he did not consider the portrait of Levitan successful, he thought that he should have been depicted differently.
In 1901, a student exhibition was planned in memory of Levitan. For Serov, this was an occasion to decide the image of Levitan somehow differently, in a new way. This time he worked as a pastel and depicted Levitan in a hat and coat, in a three-quarter spread, choosing a slightly lower angle. Artist Boris Lipkinrecalled that Serov was interested in his opinion: “How is the portrait?” Lipkin, who knew Levitan well during his lifetime, did not dare to lie out of respect for Serov. “The portrait doesn’t seem very similar to me”, - he said. Serov immediately agreed: "Yes, I can’t write without nature. The cap and coat are Levitan, but the rest is not. My head didn’t come out, I wrote from Adolf and photos, it didn’t work, I don’t know how to live without nature ... "
Adolf was the brother of Levitan, also an artist, who entered the Moscow School of Art and Design “to study as an artist” a year earlier than Isaac, and survived the famous relative by 33.
Who is author? Valentin Serov
Circumstances of the creation. Valentin Serov completed this pastel portrait when Levitan was dead for about a year. The previous Serov portrait had a good press and earned a lot of eulogies from critics and the public, and - what happens infrequently - the model itself. Artist Vladimir Sokolov, one of the students of Levitan, conveyed the words of his teacher: “This is an amazing thing! Serov is an amazing artist. I am sure that my portrait of his work will be later in the Tretyakov Gallery ”. But, surprisingly, the work of the perfectionist Serov himself did not bring satisfaction, he did not consider the portrait of Levitan successful, he thought that he should have been depicted differently.
In 1901, a student exhibition was planned in memory of Levitan. For Serov, this was an occasion to decide the image of Levitan somehow differently, in a new way. This time he worked as a pastel and depicted Levitan in a hat and coat, in a three-quarter spread, choosing a slightly lower angle. Artist Boris Lipkinrecalled that Serov was interested in his opinion: “How is the portrait?” Lipkin, who knew Levitan well during his lifetime, did not dare to lie out of respect for Serov. “The portrait doesn’t seem very similar to me”, - he said. Serov immediately agreed: "Yes, I can’t write without nature. The cap and coat are Levitan, but the rest is not. My head didn’t come out, I wrote from Adolf and photos, it didn’t work, I don’t know how to live without nature ... "
Adolf was the brother of Levitan, also an artist, who entered the Moscow School of Art and Design “to study as an artist” a year earlier than Isaac, and survived the famous relative by 33.
Amplitude: "Brother Levitan"
Who is author? Adolf Levitan
Circumstances of the creation. So, beardless and beardless, quite young and not like his own "canonical" portraits, few remembered Isaac Levitan. Is that friend and peer Mikhail Nesterov, who wrote: “I recognized Levitan as a young man, as I myself was then. An unusually beautiful, graceful Jewish boy was like those Italian boys who used to have a scarlet flower in curly hair and meet the forest in the old Santa Lucia of Naples or in the squares of Florence, somewhere near Santa Maria Novella. Young Levitan attracted attention by the fact that he was already known at school for talent then ”. And also - Isaac remembered such and perhaps didn’t want to know others, who he would become later, his brother and the author of this amazing portrait - Adolf Levitan.
The family history of the Levitans is confusing and strange, not for nothing Isaac so stubbornly did not want to tell anything about his childhood, and ordered all correspondence after death to be burned. His brother Abel Leib, who by his own initiative took the name Adolph, did not leave any memories, although he survived Isaac for 33 years. The well-established version of their biography says: in the family of Lithuanian Sephardic Jews Elias and Basi Levitan there were two sons Abel and Isaac and two daughters Teresa and Emma. When the family moved to Moscow, the more capable Abel began to study painting, and a year later, following the steps of his brother, he wrote a request to accept him to school and 13-year-old Isaac. Both made progress and, in connection with extreme poverty, sometimes received financial assistance from the school. Familiar from the school and spoke about them then in the plural: "Levitans." Everyone recognized that the brothers looked very similar in appearance.
Osirotev, the Levitans shared adversity, sometimes went hungry, unsuccessfully tried to write something commercially profitable together (Abel was responsible for the figures, Isaac - for the landscape). In the late 1870s, they, along with other Jews, were expelled for the first time from Moscow to Saltykovka. It was there that on May 30, 1879, Abel painted a portrait of Isaac. A certain brotherly tenderness is felt in him. Both are still ahead, and Abel, of course, still does not suspect that in the history of art there will be only one Levitan - Isaac.
Little is known about Abel, and even photographs cannot be found. Like his brother, he participated in exhibitions, received small silver medals, printed drawings in humorous magazines, wrote something. But Adolf, in contrast to Isaac, was not accepted into the Society of Traveling Art Exhibitions. And abroad, unlike Isaac, he was not able to visit, although Adolf wrote with a written request to assist in this in Tretyakov himself. After the death of Isaac, Abel, fulfilling his dying will, burned all the letters and became the manager of his legacy. As much as Isaac was loved in the artistic milieu, they were just as wary and even hostile towards Adolph, for which there are several epistolary evidence. A few years later, Abel-Adolf left for Yalta, led a small art studio there, lived almost a recluse. Almost nothing is known about his work, as well as about his personality. It is difficult to judge whether Abel considered his more talented brother, Cain, at heart.
The metrics newly discovered in 2010 by Mikhail Rogov indicate that Isaac could not be born in the family of the parents of Abel Elyash (Ilya) and Basi Levitan. He was the son of his brother Elyash - Khatskel and, for unknown reasons, was brought up in an uncle's family. Abel was actually born 5 months later than Isaac and was thus the youngest. Although all his life and for many years after Abel was considered senior due to confusion in the documents. The confusion was intentional: Ilya Levitan specifically wrote down Abel’s native as a senior (although in fact the senior was Isaac’s foster son) in order to protect his blood son from military service.
In the light of this version, the long-known, but not completely understandable confession of Maria Chekhova that Isaac Levitan receives a new meaning “He never said anything about family and childhood. It turned out as if he had no father or mother at all. Sometimes it even seemed to me that he wanted to forget about their existence ... "
Author: Anna Yesterday
Who is author? Adolf Levitan
Circumstances of the creation. So, beardless and beardless, quite young and not like his own "canonical" portraits, few remembered Isaac Levitan. Is that friend and peer Mikhail Nesterov, who wrote: “I recognized Levitan as a young man, as I myself was then. An unusually beautiful, graceful Jewish boy was like those Italian boys who used to have a scarlet flower in curly hair and meet the forest in the old Santa Lucia of Naples or in the squares of Florence, somewhere near Santa Maria Novella. Young Levitan attracted attention by the fact that he was already known at school for talent then ”. And also - Isaac remembered such and perhaps didn’t want to know others, who he would become later, his brother and the author of this amazing portrait - Adolf Levitan.
The family history of the Levitans is confusing and strange, not for nothing Isaac so stubbornly did not want to tell anything about his childhood, and ordered all correspondence after death to be burned. His brother Abel Leib, who by his own initiative took the name Adolph, did not leave any memories, although he survived Isaac for 33 years. The well-established version of their biography says: in the family of Lithuanian Sephardic Jews Elias and Basi Levitan there were two sons Abel and Isaac and two daughters Teresa and Emma. When the family moved to Moscow, the more capable Abel began to study painting, and a year later, following the steps of his brother, he wrote a request to accept him to school and 13-year-old Isaac. Both made progress and, in connection with extreme poverty, sometimes received financial assistance from the school. Familiar from the school and spoke about them then in the plural: "Levitans." Everyone recognized that the brothers looked very similar in appearance.
Osirotev, the Levitans shared adversity, sometimes went hungry, unsuccessfully tried to write something commercially profitable together (Abel was responsible for the figures, Isaac - for the landscape). In the late 1870s, they, along with other Jews, were expelled for the first time from Moscow to Saltykovka. It was there that on May 30, 1879, Abel painted a portrait of Isaac. A certain brotherly tenderness is felt in him. Both are still ahead, and Abel, of course, still does not suspect that in the history of art there will be only one Levitan - Isaac.
Little is known about Abel, and even photographs cannot be found. Like his brother, he participated in exhibitions, received small silver medals, printed drawings in humorous magazines, wrote something. But Adolf, in contrast to Isaac, was not accepted into the Society of Traveling Art Exhibitions. And abroad, unlike Isaac, he was not able to visit, although Adolf wrote with a written request to assist in this in Tretyakov himself. After the death of Isaac, Abel, fulfilling his dying will, burned all the letters and became the manager of his legacy. As much as Isaac was loved in the artistic milieu, they were just as wary and even hostile towards Adolph, for which there are several epistolary evidence. A few years later, Abel-Adolf left for Yalta, led a small art studio there, lived almost a recluse. Almost nothing is known about his work, as well as about his personality. It is difficult to judge whether Abel considered his more talented brother, Cain, at heart.
The metrics newly discovered in 2010 by Mikhail Rogov indicate that Isaac could not be born in the family of the parents of Abel Elyash (Ilya) and Basi Levitan. He was the son of his brother Elyash - Khatskel and, for unknown reasons, was brought up in an uncle's family. Abel was actually born 5 months later than Isaac and was thus the youngest. Although all his life and for many years after Abel was considered senior due to confusion in the documents. The confusion was intentional: Ilya Levitan specifically wrote down Abel’s native as a senior (although in fact the senior was Isaac’s foster son) in order to protect his blood son from military service.
In the light of this version, the long-known, but not completely understandable confession of Maria Chekhova that Isaac Levitan receives a new meaning “He never said anything about family and childhood. It turned out as if he had no father or mother at all. Sometimes it even seemed to me that he wanted to forget about their existence ... "
Author: Anna Yesterday
