Who is Levitan Isaac Ilyich?

Isaac Ilyich Levitan - a brilliant Russian landscape painter, a Jew by nationality. That's who Levitan is.

Early years of life

In 1860, in the family of an educated Jewish philistineIlya Levitan was born the second son, Isaac. The poor family on the verge of a beggarly existence lived at that time in Lithuania in the town of Kirbaty. Ilya Levitan himself was a translator, then he taught languages. In search of a better life, they all moved to Moscow. The existence of the family did not get any better from this. They settled on the fourth floor in a small apartment. There was no money at all. The children could not even go to school, because there was nothing to pay. Father himself dealt with them.

At the age of 13, Isaac entered the Moscow School.painting and sculpture. He immediately, without hesitation, decided that he would be a landscape painter. Even their pitiful apartment was good because for a long time one could admire the setting sun.

When Isaac was fifteen years old, his mother died.And two years later, his father died of typhus. At the same time, Isaac fell ill with typhus, but he recovered, but the consequences affected his whole life - he was in poor health. How to survive, starving, four young children without material assistance, they know only. Neither Isaac nor his brother have ever told anyone about their childhood and adolescence. Probably, their memories were so bitter and bleak.

In college

At first Levitan studied with Vasily Perov, but infourth grade, Alexey Savrasov invited him to his landscape class. Studied Levitan easy, but still he worked a lot and hard. Paintings, created by him at the age of 16, “Autumn. The road to the village "and" Evening ", are now in the State Tretyakov Gallery. And then the school marked them with a silver medal and monetary assistance.

Eviction of Jews from Moscow

В 1879 году вышел указ, запрещавший евреям жить в ancient capital of Russia. Who is Levitan? Outcast, which is not a place where life is in full swing. The brothers settled near Moscow in the dacha of Saltykovka. The places there were beautiful. What else should a landscape painter? Paints and canvas, and maybe just a pencil and paper, watercolor, ink, pen. All that can serve as educational material for the image of the state of nature, its mood. But Levitan goes to Moscow every day. And for good reason. At the exhibition of 1879 his painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki. In it, the female figure was written by A. Chekhov’s brother Nikolai.

Picture-elegy immediately appreciated and bought P. M. Tretyakov. Levitan has no “pass-through” works. He is still studying, but what range of colors reigns on the canvas "Oak", penetrated by the sun! Живописец крайне чуток к мало уловимым изменениям in nature and is able to convey them. But neither talent nor skill did not allow Levitan to receive the title of artist at the end of the school in 1885. Who is Levitan after college? Penman teacher.

Meet A. Chekhov

После окончания училища ни диплома, ни денег у Isaac Levitan was not. He settled near Moscow near Babkino, where the Chekhov family visited. Here, for the first time, Anton Pavlovich and Isaac Ilyich will meet. To friend Levitan, his friend Mikhail Chekhov will bring his brother-doctor. So they will meet. Closed and suspicious, Levitan will literally flourish, communicating with the cordial and cheerful family of the Chekhovs, where everyone is ready for inventions and practical jokes, and Anton Pavlovich himself serves as a ringleader. The joy and smile of life will flow from the canvas "Birch Grove", which Isaac Ilyich Levitan will begin to write here. The biography of him and Chekhov will often be intertwined. Here he will continue to explain his love for Russian nature, so simple and dull, but sometimes surprisingly joyful and major. A. Chekhov for some time began to call the nature of the Moscow region "Levitan." A little later, Isaac Ilyich Levitan will give A.P. Chekhov a photo with a dedication.

About the proximity of two artists say twosmall paintings that the painter gave the writer. One is called the Istra River, and the second is Oak and Birch. On it, against the background of a forest thicket, there passes a narrow path, next to which stands a powerful oak tree, and a thin white birch gently clings to it. Both landscapes were above the desk of Anton Pavlovich along with a photograph of the artist.

"Birch Grove"

Everything in this line is filled with light.He plays the trunks, shimmering, making them brighter and whiter. The sun penetrates the foliage, each tree stretches towards it and basks under its rays. It is simply amazing how many shades of green the artist has found for his work. Only a sophisticated master colorist can work in almost two colors, without causing the viewer the impression of monotony and scarcity of the color palette. On the contrary - it is rich and does not merge into one mass. And bluish bells in the foreground reinforce the impression of juiciness of young grass that filled the lawn.

Crimea in the artist's life

В это время, в середине 80-х годов, улучшается the material situation of the artist, after he worked for Mamontov, but his health deteriorates, and for his amendment he went to the Crimea. There, at first, he was delighted, wrote romantic works, and then, as he admitted in letters to A. Chekhov, he was bored by the North. He went back and put up the Crimean landscapes ("Tatar cemetery. Crimea", "By the sea. Crimea", "Ai-Petri", "Crimean landscape", "In the Crimean Mountains") at the Moscow exhibition. All of them bought up in the first days. The life led by Isaac Ilyich Levitan, biography and paintings of the artist are described step by step in the article.

Boat trip

Первая поездка по Волге, предпринятая весной 1887 year, was unsuccessful. It was a gray, rainy and cold weather. A strong wind blew from the Volga. The disappointed artist is back. But the Volga is not one of those rivers that can be forgotten. The following year, he again went to the Volga. Here he found the town of Plyos, whose neighborhood became the impetus for creativity for more than one year.

In "Evening on the Volga" slowly and dignified flowsriver of immense width. There is neither end nor edge in it. On the other side, even the forest is not clearly visible. It stands on the opposite hilly bank of a bluish band in the gathering twilight and melts away, turning into a thin strip. The Volga is calm. Evening clouds are reflected in its water. Only the high-high glows with golden reflections the sunset sun, which is located behind the painter's back.

"After the rain. Plyos, 1889

Just immense river.But everything on it is washed with the last rain and glows with a special silver light. This purity and ripples on the river are reminiscent of the rain, which brought renewal of nature. People are present indirectly. Communication with them takes place through the urban landscape in the distance, and boats and barges on the shore. The world depicted is poetic and spiritual. So who is Levitan? He is a poet who picked up a brush and not with words, but with colors and patterns, speaks of harmony, which is sometimes possible.

Travel to Western Europe

In the years 1889-1890Levitan goes to get acquainted with modern painting in France and Italy. In addition to seeing the works of artists of the Barbizon school and the Impressionists, Levitan himself writes many landscapes. However, by the end of the journey, he was already irresistibly drawn to his home, to all his relatives, who knew and felt with all their hearts.

Period of the peak of the creation of spiritual values

Nineties - the heyday of creativityLevitan. Yes, and the artist himself. He was always beautiful, and now he has become an elegant fashionable person who, besides this, attracted people to him with sensitivity and delicacy. In his eyes shone, according to Chaliapin, "a rare poetic soul."

In 1890, Levitan wrote "Silent monastery",which linked together a series of impressions of the artist from the monasteries of Ples and Moscow suburbs, seen by a Russian man repeatedly, and caused, in the opinion of Chekhov, a desire to go further and further into the sunset into an ocean of pure bliss. Levitan, like no one else, opened the secret of Russian nature, its quiet beauty.

Personal turmoil

On the Volga I. Levitan went not alone.Among others, he was accompanied by artist S. Kuvshinnikova. This lady was carried away by the loving and passionate Isaac Ilyich Levitan. His biography was replenished with a novel with an ugly, but elegant and intelligent lady who was 12 years older than him. They began to talk about. After all, Kuvshinnikova was married to a doctor. A.P. Chekhov wrote the story "Jumping" in which everyone saw this pair. But Levitan was offended and broke off relations with A. Chekhov. They were reconciled by T. L. Schepkina-Kupernik. But from the side of Levitan it was a formal reconciliation, because he was so offended that he wanted to duel. So here is Isaac Ilyich Levitan. Interesting facts of his life are also associated with Chekhov. Charming Levitan became entree in the house of Senator Turchaninov. He was carried away by his wife, and the daughter of the senator fell in love with Levitan. At this time, more than ever, Levitan painted still lifes with flowers. Then he painted in one of the visits the picture "March", depicting the estate Turchaninov. This is the bright end of winter, which no one has ever seen before.

It has white snow, a dazzling blue sky,blue shadows on the snow. After Levitan, this motif was often repeated in the paintings of Juon and Grabar. Let us return to the Turchaninovs' house. In this novel a young girl intervened to nothing, and this puts Levitan off balance, and the artist even shoots. Chekhov felt a certain theatricality in this, since the wound was not dangerous for life. In addition, at this moment Levitan killed a seagull, which he brought into the house and threw it at the feet of the women. It was a tragicomic occurrence in which Isaac Ilyich Levitan fell. Facts from the artist's life became for A. P. Chekhov a creative impulse and were reflected in the play “The Seagull”.

"At the pool" (1892)

At this time, Levitan experienced his unfortunatenovels with Kuvshinnikova and Turchaninova and projected onto the nature of their inner experiences. Anxiety - this is the main motive of this work, which covers the viewer. In the same places Pushkin also wrote his “Mermaid”.

"Vladimirka" (1892)

Бесконечная дорога каторжан в Сибирь.In any weather, people went to hard labor in shackles over the vast expanses of the sun and the torrential cold autumn rains. This desert tract so excited Levitan, that in a few sessions in one breath he painted a picture and presented Pavel Tretyakov.

"Over Eternal Peace" (1894)

Cape, dilapidated chapel, cemetery. The wind bends thin trees, and it seems that a little more and it will demolish both the churchyard and the little church. The vastness of the lake beneath the sky with overhanging leaden clouds.

Безразличная к человеку природа вечна.It brings melancholy sadness and reflections on the eternal - on the loneliness of man, on his smallness in the vast expanses. Man feels like a grain of sand. The composition of the picture is strict and clear. Two thirds of the canvas is occupied by the sky. Only the dome of the chapel, aimed at the sky, opposes the power of the elements. Faith and only faith will help a person to survive.

"Spring. High Water "(1897)

The last years of the painter - this is his huge rise.It is not possible to describe everything that Isaac Ilyich Levitan created at this time, whose work is extremely diverse. Lyrics and light poetry - this is his work “Spring. Big water.

Since childhood, spring has been his favorite season.And here the wise man sings a hymn to a resurgent beauty with a soft blue sky, azure water, delicate light tree trunks. Here, in this enchanted land, peace and quiet reign, in which dissolves everyone who is brought to see the canvas. So who is Levitan? The artist-philosopher, lyricist, who was the best to express the charm of the low-key Russian nature and its quiet charm.

Heart disease has cut short the life of a creator whenwas thirty nine years old. He died in 1900. Isaac Ilyich Levitan died too early. Creativity, all the paintings, the most outstanding, we tried to analyze, without losing the main thing - his ability to fill his works with the breath of life. Now his ashes are at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.