Site biography of artists

Random pattern. Summer evening. The sketch of Isaac Ilyich Levitan is the greatest of those Russian landscape painters who in the 19th century discovered for contemporaries the modest beauty of Russian nature. Starting to work under the leadership of Savrasov and Polenov, Levitan soon left far behind his teachers, forever entering his name into the pantheon of domestic culture.

For a long time it was believed that in Russia there is no nature that can cause admiration and become a topic for a serious work. Instead of nature, there was only a gray, faceless mass, dreary and endless, like human grief. The works of Russian landscape painters of that time were more like copies of Italian and French paintings, in which the clarity and spectacle of the artistic language was primarily appreciated.

Levitan avoided depicting externally spectacular places. He did not need it. In the simplest village motive, he, like no one else, was able to find that dear and infinitely close that he acts so irresistibly on the soul of a Russian person, forcing him to return to the picture again and again. There is no "beauty of nature." Only what is a lonely wanderer who was crazy from the city to the city, from the village to the village along endless Russian roads, drawn by the “divine something that is spilled in everything, but that not everyone sees that it can not be called a word, since it is not amenable to reason, analysis, and only love is about all nationalists, the mystery of Russian nature was revealed to the poor Jewish.

The young man, at the end of his life, was the stigma of his origin. Something, something familiar, as if I had already seen this very panorama, once in childhood, can be said without execution that after Levitan the Russian landscape became different. Levitan died in the year, becoming the last bright figure of the Golden Age of Russian Culture, as if summing up the search for the best Russian minds of that time.

The memory of the great man and the artist is dedicated to this site. In the "Biography" section, you can familiarize yourself with the detailed description of the Levitan life and creative path. Levitan - paintings, life, creativity and biography of Levitan. Gallery of the Russian landscape, and. Pictures, drawings, graphics, painting. And it’s hard to even meet the audience, who, approaching his works with an open soul and heart, will remain indifferent, will not fall under the charming, amazing sincerity and love of Levitan into Russian nature, will not fall under the charm of his rare ability to convey all the shades, all the characteristics and features of the nature of the middle strip of Russia.

In the "Creativity" section, we are pleased to present you the most complete selection of works by the artist in Runet, containing near famous paintings, sketches and drawings.

The photo archive contains unique photos from the artist’s life, starting from youth, and ending with the last years of life. The section "Quotes" contains the statements of friends and other artists about Levitan himself and his works. The living memories of contemporaries are the best characterize Levitan as a person and an artist. The site published the most interesting articles and materials on Levitan: the memoirs of Nesterov, Korovin, detailed studies of critics and specialists A.

Benois, A. Fedorova-Davydov, S. Makovsky, V. Maninin, art narratives of K. Paustovsky, N. Smirnov, I. Evdokimov and other articles. If you want to get acquainted with the personality of the artist, his life and labor, visit the “Books” section - here are links to various publications, books and memories of Levitan friends and colleagues. We will also be happy if you leave your review in our guest book.

Your opinion is important to us both about the site itself and about the work of Isaac Levitan. We will be happy to hear your comments and additions, which we will definitely take into account on the pages of this site. Why did not women in my life bring me peace and happiness? Perhaps because even the best of them are owners. They need everything or nothing. I can't do that.

All I can belong only to my quiet homeless muse, everything else is fussing but, understanding this, I still strive for the impossible, I dream of an unrealizable here it is appropriate to remember the words of A. who have already become immortal words Benois, by which he forever, as if secured Levitan’s championship in Russian painting: “The most remarkable and precious among Russian artists who introduced the life -giving spirit of poetry into the callous realism is a mentioned Levitan.

The appearance of his“ quiet monastery ”in the year made a surprisingly bright impression.It seemed that the shutters were accurately removed from the windows, as if they were wide open, and a stream of fresh, fragrant air poured into the stolen exhibition hall, where it smelled so disgusting from an excessive number of sheepskin coats and lubricated boots. What could be easier than this picture?

Summer morning. A cerebral river gently conjures a wooded mouse. A liquid bridge on the poles is thrown through it. Due to the birches of the opposite shore, they are red in cold, pink rays, in a very bright sky, the dome and the bell tower of a small monastery. The motive is poetic, cute, elegant, but, in essence, beaten. Did you have a little written before the monasteries with pink morning or evening lighting?

Are there few transparent rivers, birch groves? However, it was clear that here Levitan said a new word, sang a new wonderful song, and this song about the long-familiar things fascinated in such a new thing that the very things seemed unprecedented, just open. There is no better country than Russia! Only in Russia can there be a real landscape painter. They directly struck their untouched, fresh poetry.

And immediately it also became clear that here is not an “accidental expact”, but the picture of the master and that from now on this master should be one of the first among all. What was the secret of the charms of this modest picture and where could the belief in the great meaning of its author come from? It is difficult to answer this question, since higher art cannot be determined in words.

It remains a mystery, the sound of that bell in the underwear fairy tale, whose benefactor comes from the nearest forest, but which is not given to the prudent searches of the philistines. And all the poetry of Levitan, what, in essence, is it? Everyday, almost wretched miserable topics; A large road, a forest, spring, melt snow - wasn’t it all written before it, will it not be written to infinity, until complete saturation?

Did we have many truthful artists over the past 20 years, are there few direct sketches? However, the distance between Levitan and others is huge - a whole incomplete abyss. Levitan is the truth, what exactly is needed, what exactly you love, what is most expensive in the world. And all the others were only faked under truth or remained within amateurism, loves cannot be listed all the autumn days applied to the canvas.

Levitan left about a hundred "autumn" paintings, not counting the studies. They depicted things familiar from childhood: lonely gold birches, not yet upholstered by the wind; The sky that looks like thin ice; Space rains over forest droppings. But in all these landscapes, no matter what they portray, the sadness of farewell days, sprinkling leaves, decaying herbs, quiet buzz of bees in front of the cold and the premium sun, barely noticeably heating the earth and others also loved Russian nature as Levitan loved it, is best.

Who was not touched by the adhesive spring leaves, the smell of earth, dry leaves, as well as a wonderful smell of snow; Who did not enjoy, stepping along the damp, watering moisture of spring black earth, looking at the sleepy swaying of birch tops or at a bright sunset over the river; Who did not bliss, lying in the grass or receiving on a hot, stuffy day the first large drops of rain from Sisa of a thunderstorm cloud?

This whole sphere of elusive, perhaps physiological, but mysterious and somehow strange captivating, sensations are Levitan art. The paintings of Levitan are not types of localities, not reference documents, but the Russian nature itself with its inexplicably subtle charm, a quiet, modest, dear Russian nature. However, where are those artists who, without literary comments, are such “literary comments” and in the landscape, at once, in one general view of their paintings would make such moods that embraced them among nature?

There were very few of them throughout the history of art, and Levitan stands among these few of these very first - the real poet of God's mercy. The untimely death of this big artist is an indispensable loss for Russian art. Benois “But what to do, I can’t be at least a little happy, calm, well, in a word, I don’t understand myself outside the painting. I have never loved nature like that, I haven’t been so a bit to it, I have never felt so much, I didn’t feel this divine something spilled in everything, but that I don’t even see that it can’t be called, since it is not amenable to reason, and befell love.

Without this feeling, there cannot be a true artist. Many will not understand, they will call, perhaps, a romantic nonsense - let it! They are prudence, but this is my insight for me a source of deep suffering. Can it be more tragic, how to feel the endless beauty of the environment, to notice the secret secret, to see God in everything and not be able to, realizing your impotence, to express these big sensations Isaac Levitan isaak-levitan.

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