Almost every person who is interested in art is briefly familiar with the work of Levitan, but not everyone knows about his biography. You will learn about the life of this talented person in the process of reading the article.
Childhood and early years
The future great Russian landscape painter Isaac Ilyich Levitan was born in 1860 near the railway station of Kibarty (modern Lithuania) in a poor Jewish family. His father, Ilya (Elyashiv-Leib) Abramovich Levitan, like his grandfather, graduated from a rabbinical school, but did not succeed in this field and served in various small posts of the Russian Railway.
In addition to Isaac, the family had three more children: Abel (who later took the name Adolf) and sisters Teresa and Michelet. They lived very poorly, and in the early 1870s, the father of the family decided to move to Moscow. But there the family continues to be poor. Father never finds a decent job, and his mother, Basya Girshevna Levitan, according to contemporaries, a big lover of books, could forget to feed the children because of an interesting novel.
The mystery of the artist’s birth
Already an adult, Isaac Ilyich did not like to talk about his parents. Perhaps this feature can be explained by the studies of the biographer of the great artist M. A. Rogov, who says that Isaac could not be born in the family of Ilya Abramovich and most likely was the son of his brother Khatskel. But why the boy was brought up in the family of Ilya and Berta Levitan, no one can explain. Both brothers kept this secret until the very end.
Long 11 years of study
The older brother of Isaac in 1871 entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Two years later, Isaac Ilyich arrives there too. As the biographers of Levitan found out, his father did not see much talent in him, but the fact that the brothers studied in one place was convenient in its own way.
When the future great landscape painter turned 15, his mother died, and two years later the father of the family dies from typhoid fever. In view of the urgent need for the family and taking into account the successes of both brothers in school, the school exempts them from paying tuition and sometimes even pays benefits.
Levitan, who was studying at that time in the “natural” class of the artist Perov, noticed Aleksey Savrasov and transferred to his “landscape” class. Fourteen-year-old Isaac understands the new teacher at a glance, although many other students find him overly eccentric. But the young man perfectly understands how in the picture an oak can make noise or a birch is worried.
However, despite all his successes, Isaac Ilyich leaves the school without receiving a diploma. First, after the attempt on Alexander I in 1879, all Jews and their families were expelled from Moscow. And despite the fact that Savrasov is increasingly skipping classes because of drunkenness, he still admits his graduation work to the diploma, the anti-Semitism of other teachers and the growing hostility between Savrasov and Perov still do not allow Levitan to receive the document. In 1885, Isaac Ilyich graduated from college, but never received the title of artist.
Becoming an artist
After graduation, Levitan settles in cheap rooms on Tverskaya with his great friend and classmate Alexei Stepanov (he is the one who sets up the wolf in the painting “Winter in the Forest”). In addition to the love of painting, they were united by a love of hunting.
Levitan again felt a great need for money, so the purchase of his painting Autumn Day turned out to be very timely. Sokolniki "by the collector Tretyakov. In addition, under the patronage of Polenov, Levitan and Korovin get the job of painting the scenery for the Private Opera of Savva Mamontov. But the work was not to the liking of the landscape painter, and he did not take root with Mamontov.
The role of A.P. Chekhov in the life of I.I. Levitan
Future great writer and great landscape painter met in early youth. The artist often visited the Chekhovs in Babkino at a time when he, like all Jews, was expelled from Moscow.
It was there, in Babkino, that Levitan fell in love with the only sister of the five Chekhov brothers - Maria. It is to her, the first and only, that he makes a marriage proposal. But Mary refused him.
Levitan and Chekhov were friends until the death of the artist, although it was not without a period when friends seriously quarreled. Chekhov wrote his “The Jumper”, choosing the then muse of Isaac Ilyich Sofya Petrovna Kuvshinnikova as the prototype for the not very pleasant main character. Levitan was very offended by his friend and for three long years stopped all communication with him. But this could not continue for a long time, and Levitan gladly took the first opportunity to make peace with Anton Pavlovich, since he lacked his calm discretion.
Crimea in the work of Isaac Levitan
Despite the improved financial situation, troubled childhood made itself felt in heart disease, and in 1886 the artist went to the Crimea to restore health. The artist Levitan, whose work is known to all people interested in art, fell in love with the sea at first sight, but quickly cooled and began to tear back to Central Russian landscapes.
Crimea Levitan was not at all what his landscape painters previously depicted. Not the front palace, but more severe and tough. Despite the fact that the artist wrote many sketches here, most of them did not become full-fledged paintings. One of the few "grown" sketches was "On the seashore. Crimea ”, now stored in the State Russian Museum of St. Petersburg. It was a composition rather than a landscape painted from nature. Another picture of Levitan - “Crimean landscape” became full-scale.
The artist Levitan, whose biography and work is presented to your attention in the article, left Crimea to return there before his death in 1899. But this fact does not mean at all that the artist was so fond of Crimean landscapes that he wanted to see them again. In fact, he came to see his friends A.P. Chekhovy and his sister Maria.
The artist at that time was almost unable to work. In the last year of his life, only a few Crimean landscapes are dated, which are more likely to recall the distant spring when Levitan first visited the peninsula.
The first acquaintance with the Volga: the disappointment of the artist
Upon returning from the Crimea, Levitan organized his exhibition, consisting of 50 landscapes. The artist dreamed of visiting the Volga, which his teacher Alexei Savrasov so beautifully painted. And in 1887 his dream came true, and instead of writing again already far and wide studied the Moscow Region, Levitan went to the Volga. But Isaac Ilyich is seriously disappointed. He, hoping to get inspiration previously unknown, is confronted with harsh reality.
At that time there was terribly cloudy and gloomy weather, and nature, too, seemed to Levitan dull. In a letter to Chekhov, he wrote: "The stunted bushes and, like lichens, cliffs ...". The artist rents a room, hoping to wait a long rain, but he still does not manage to establish relations with the great Russian river. During that time, while he was on this trip, he was overcome by terrible anguish. Work on the air was almost impossible. Suffering from many diseases, the artist quickly froze, his hands did not obey. And due to the fact that during the day he lounged a lot, at night he was overcome by insomnia.
Levitan was sure that nothing more would connect him with the Volga. In complete disappointment, he returned to Moscow, deciding never to return to the Volga topic.
Hard winter and new friends
Despite everything, Levitan continued to work with drafts that he made in the summer. The heavy blue-green-gray palette of those works speaks of the deep depression that the artist was experiencing at that time.
Driven almost to despair, the artist even tried to take his own life. They managed to take it out of the loop only by a miracle. And in 1886, Chekhov, who noticed the desperation of a friend, introduced him to Dmitry Pavlovich Kuvshinnikov and his wife Sofia Petrovna, who held an art salon, popular in those years.
After meeting Levitan was surprised to recognize in Kuvshinnikov one of the hunters from Perov’s famous painting, and Sofya Petrovna agreed to give several painting lessons. So began the novel, which lasted almost 8 years.
Return to the Volga
In 1888, Kuvshinnikova convinces Levitan to go to the Volga again. She was tired of places near Zvenigorod where they went for sketches for two summers, she wanted variety. Isaac Ilyich resisted, explaining his refusal by the fact that he was already on the Volga and there was nothing to look at.
Then Sofya Petrovna found an alternative - Oka. Together with the artist Stepanov, they sailed along the Oka to Nizhny Novgorod, and there, in search of a quiet place where they could live and work quietly, they arrived in Ples.
Levitan was fascinated by this small city. The spleen was forgotten by him, he worked with rapture, beginning several paintings at once. All of them came to him easily, the artist was fascinated and truly passionate about his work.
On this trip, Isaac Ilyich completely changed his mind about the Volga. She ceased to seem dark and heavy to him, lightness appeared in the paintings and, as Chekhov, who saw his friend’s work in Moscow, said, a smile. This is the peculiarity of Levitan’s work - all of his works are light, inspired, charming.
For three years in a row, both Levitan and Kuvshinnikova came to Ples. Here he painted many of his most famous paintings. Impressions of the Reach even crept into those of his work, which were written elsewhere. For example, in the painting “Above Eternal Peace”, which was painted on Udomlya Lake, the Plesky church was inscribed in the painting recognized by the Russian landscape itself.
It is with the works written during this period, as critics say, that the real Levitan began. The most important work is a peculiar result of the entire Volga period in Levitan's work - the painting “Quiet Convent”.
The sunset of Levitan's life
Severe heart disease worsened severely after Levitan turned 35. Biographers argue whether it was a congenital disease or acquired myocarditis. But they all agree on one thing that neurasthenia markedly increased the manifestations of the disease.
Meanwhile, in the artistic professional field, success follows Levitan on the heels. He has not received the status of an artist, he is accepted into the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. Levitan is often abroad, but not so much for inspiration for new landscapes as for treatment.
A few years before the death of Isaac Ilyich invited to teach at the Moscow School of Painting, where he himself once studied. Then he receives the title of academician of painting.
The death of the artist
The last year of his life Levitan spent in Yalta with his friend Chekhov and his sister at the now famous "White Cottage" Anton Pavlovich. Isaac Ilyich really wanted to live, but the disease took his last strength.
The life and work of Levitan could go on for a very long time, but in August 1900 the great artist died, and did not live to be forty years old. He is buried in Moscow at the Jewish cemetery. There is a legend that in that year the lilac blossomed twice, so sincerely loved by the artist ...