LEVITAN, Isaak Ilyich

(b. 1860 Kibarta, d. 1900 Moscow)

Russian painter of Lithuanian birth. He studied under Savrassov and Polenov at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow between 1873 and 1885. As a Jew, he was from time to time refused entry to the city. He finally received a silver medal but was only given a diploma as a teacher of calligraphy. In the 1890s he traveled to France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Finland and Germany.

He largely painted landscapes (including pastel sketches), which are noted for their emotive or symbolic resonance. His ‘landscapes of mood’ had a profound influence on Russian landscape painting, to which he introduced a sense of the unity of humankind and nature, and of the spiritual power of the Russian countryside.

Birch Grove

Levitan was unequalled in his ability to evoke a veritably pantheist sense of vastness of landscape, or the dappling of light in a birch grove with its rhythmic, delicately structured colour harmonies. He rejected the Impressionism of Monet, nonetheless, his paintings reveal a thoroughly Impressionist sensitivity to phenomena of light and the autonomy of pure, strong colours.

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Golden Autumn

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River Landscape

This painting is a typical example of the landscape studies that Isaac Ilyich Levitan produced throughout his career. It bears an inscription from Levitan’s brother, Adolf Ilyich Levitan (1859-1933), authenticating the work. Adolf was also an artist, although he never achieved the success and renown of his brother. The inscription in Cyrillic at lower right reads: ‘study by my brother, I Levitan, A Levitan’.

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