In the painting “Sokolniki” one can undoubtedly feel the brush of Isaac Levitan. The sky, which only he could paint, has a special depth, the moist air is felt by the whole body, it seems that the first heavy drops of rain will fall from the sky. Huge gigantic pines, standing like a wall on both sides of the alley, seem to be guardians guarding the peace of the forest. Standing behind the pines, young maples shed their leaves - they decorate the park path with light spots. The alley itself leads far, far into the distance - almost into the sky. Fallen leaves highlight it as a light stripe among the green, not yet dried grass, on which light spots of fallen leaves also stand out.
This soulful work became evidence of Levitan’s assimilation of the poetic traditions and achievements of Russian and European landscape and the originality of his lyrical gift. Despite the fact that similar images of an alley strewn with autumn leaves are found in the works of Pavel Bryullov, and Levitan’s “revitalization” of the park landscape with a lonely female figure was apparently connected with impressions from Polenov’s paintings “Grandma’s Garden” shown at a traveling exhibition in 1879 and “Overgrown Pond”, the work is organic. In it, specific Levitan intonations sound purely and completely and a measure of unity of sketch spontaneity and “pictorial” poetic content of the landscape, perhaps unprecedented for Russian painting, has been achieved.
The breadth of the artist’s soul is felt in every stroke. The artist clearly delineates the trunks, foliage, and crowns of trees. At the same time, the airiness of the landscape and the dampness of autumn are conveyed through slightly blurred colors. The entire canvas is literally saturated with loneliness, sadness and some special Russian melancholy.
Levitan’s painting “Sokolniki” has one uncharacteristic touch for the artist - the figure of a woman walking towards the viewer. This figure was painted by another artist - Nikolai Chekhov, the brother of the famous writer. Apparently, having accurately guessed the mood of his comrade, he decided to enhance the impression of the picture by including a lonely dark human image.
A very small, but precious sketch for this painting, “Autumn Leaves,” has also been preserved. With the concentration of a reverent ritual, with gentle and quiet touches of the brush, the beauty of fallen leaves, the play of their golden, opal, almost lilac and lemon-yellow colors are conveyed. Painting “Autumn day. Sokolniki" was noticed by the audience and received, perhaps, the highest possible rating at that time - it was acquired by Pavel Tretyakov, a sensitive lover of landscape painting, who valued above all not "beauty" in it, but the soul, the unity of poetry and truth. This painting was the first one purchased by Tretyakov for his legendary collection, and the Tretyakov Gallery began with this painting.
Year of painting: 1879.
Dimensions of the painting: 63 x 50 cm.
Material: canvas.
Writing technique: oil.
Genre: landscape.
Style: realism.
Gallery: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
Artist, Isaac Levitan - the history of the painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki"
Our information: Levitan's painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki" was written in 1879 and is located in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Isaac Ilyich Levitan was born on August 18, 1860 (August 30, new style) in the village of Kibarty, near the Verzhbolovo station, Suwalki province, in the family of a railway employee. He painted more than 1000 paintings. Date of death: July 22 (August 4), 1900 (age 39).
Turns out!
"Autumn day. Sokolniki" - the only landscape by Isaac Levitan, where a person is present, and then this the person was not written by Levitan and Nikolai Pavlovich Chekhov (1858-1889), brother of the well-known Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. After that, people never appeared on his canvases. They were replaced by forests and pastures, foggy floods and the poor huts of Russia, voiceless and lonely, just as man was voiceless and lonely at that time.
How did Levitan meet Chekhov?
Levitan left the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture without a diploma or means of livelihood. There was no money at all. In April 1885, Isaac Levitan settled not far from Babkin, in the remote village of Maksimovka. The Chekhov family was visiting Babkino on the Kiselyov estate. Levitan met A.P. Chekhov, whose friendship lasted throughout his life. In the mid-1880s, the artist's financial situation improved. However, a hungry childhood, a restless life, and hard work affected his health - his heart disease worsened sharply. A trip to Crimea in 1886 strengthened Levitan's strength. Upon his return from Crimea, Isaac Levitan organizes an exhibition of fifty landscapes.
In 1879, the police evicted Levitan from Moscow to the dacha area of Saltykovka. A royal decree was issued banning Jews from living in the “original Russian capital.” Levitan was eighteen years old at that time. Levitan later recalled the summer in Saltykovka as the most difficult in his life. It was intensely hot. Almost every day the sky was covered with thunderstorms, thunder grumbled, dry weeds rustled from the wind under the windows, but not a drop of rain fell. The twilight was especially oppressive. Lights were being turned on on the balcony of the neighboring dacha. Night butterflies beat in clouds against the lamp glasses. Balls were clattering on the croquet court. The schoolchildren and girls fooled around and quarreled, finishing the game, and then, late in the evening, a woman’s voice sang a sad romance in the garden:
Click on the picture to enlarge the full size of the painting "Autumn day. Sokolniki"
That was the time when the poems of Polonsky, Maykov and Apukhtin were better known than simple Pushkin melodies, and Levitan did not even know that the words of this romance belonged to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
My voice for you is both gentle and languid
The late silence of the dark night is disturbing.
Near my bed there is a sad candle
Lit; my poems, merging and murmuring,
Streams of love flow, flow, full of you.
In the darkness your eyes shine before me,
They smile at me, and I hear sounds:
My friend, my gentle friend... I love... yours... yours!...
A.S. Pushkin.
In the evenings he listened to the singing of a stranger from behind the fence, he also remembered
one romance about how “love wept.”
He wanted to see the woman who sang so loudly and sadly, to see
girls playing croquet and schoolchildren driving with shouts of victory
wooden balls to the railway track itself. He was thirsty
tea from clean glasses on the balcony, touching a slice of lemon with a spoon, waiting a long time,
until a transparent thread of apricot jam drips from the same spoon. To him
I wanted to laugh and fool around, play burners, sing until midnight, run around
on giant steps and listen to the excited whispers of schoolchildren about the writer
Garshina, who wrote the story “Four Days,” which was banned by censorship. He wanted
look into the eyes of a singing woman - the eyes of those singing are always half-closed and full
sad beauty.
But Levitan was poor, almost beggarly. The checkered jacket was completely worn out.
The young man grew out of him. Hands, smeared with oil paint, stuck out of the sleeves,
like a bird's feet. All summer Levitan walked barefoot. Where did you go in such an outfit?
appear in front of cheerful summer residents!
And Levitan was hiding. He took a boat, swam it into the reeds on
at the dacha pond and wrote sketches - no one bothered him in the boat.
Writing sketches in the forest or fields was more dangerous. Here it was possible
bump into the bright umbrella of a dandy reading Albov’s book in the shade of the birches,
or a governess cackling over a brood of children. And no one knew how to despise
Poverty is as offensive as the governess.
Levitan hid from the summer residents, yearned for the night songster and wrote sketches.
He completely forgot that at home, at the School of Painting and Sculpture, Savrasov
predicted Corot's glory for him, and his comrades - the Korovin brothers and Nikolai Chekhov - everyone
once there was a debate over his paintings about the charms of a real Russian landscape.
Corot's future glory was drowned without a trace in resentment for life, for tattered elbows and
worn out soles.
Levitan wrote a lot in the air that summer. This is what Savrasov ordered. Somehow
in the spring, Savrasov came to the workshop on Myasnitskaya drunk, and in his heart beat out
dusty window and hurt my hand.
- What are you writing? - he shouted in a crying voice, wiping his dirty nose
blood on a handkerchief. -Tobacco smoke? Manure? Gray porridge?
Clouds rushed past the broken window, the sun lay in hot spots on
domes, and abundant fluff from dandelions flew - at that time all Moscow
the courtyards were overgrown with dandelions.
“Drive the sun onto the canvas,” Savrasov shouted, and the door was already
the old watchman looked disapprovingly - “Evil spirits.” - Spring
missed the warmth! The snow was melting, cold water was running through the ravines - why not
Did I see this in your sketches? The linden trees were blooming, the rains were as if
water, and silver poured from the sky - where is all this on your canvases? Shame and
nonsense!
From the time of this cruel scolding, Levitan began to work in the air.
At first it was difficult for him to get used to the new sensation of colors. What's in
in smoky rooms it seemed bright and clean, in the air it seemed incomprehensible
it was completely withered and covered with a cloudy coating.
Levitan strove to paint in such a way that the air could be felt in his paintings,
embracing with its transparency every blade of grass, every leaf and haystack. All
all around seemed immersed in something calm, blue and shiny. Levitan
called this something air. But it was not the same air as it was
seems to us. We breathe it, we feel its smell, cold or warmth.
Levitan felt it as a boundless environment of transparent substance, which
gave such a captivating softness to his canvases.
Summer is over. The stranger's voice was heard less and less. Somehow at dusk
Levitan met a young woman at the gate of his house. Her narrow hands turned white
from under black lace. The sleeves of the dress were trimmed with lace. soft cloud
covered the sky. It was raining sparsely. The flowers in the front gardens smelled bitter. On
Lanterns were lit on the railway booms.
The stranger stood at the gate and tried to open a small umbrella, but he
didn't open up. Finally it opened, and the rain rustled on its silk
top. The stranger slowly walked towards the station. Levitan did not see her face - it
was covered with an umbrella. She also did not see Levitan’s face, she only noticed
his bare, dirty feet and raised her umbrella so as not to catch Levitan. IN
in the wrong light he saw a pale face. It seemed familiar to him and
beautiful.
Levitan returned to his closet and lay down. The candle was smoking, the rain was humming,
drunks were crying at the station. Longing for maternal, sisterly, feminine love
entered Levitan's heart from then on and did not leave him until the last days of his life.
That same fall, Levitan wrote “Autumn Day in Sokolniki.” It was
his first painting, where there is a gray and golden autumn, sad, like the one of that time
Russian life, like the life of Levitan himself, breathed from the canvas cautiously
warmth and tugged at the hearts of the audience.
Along the path of Sokolniki Park, through heaps of fallen leaves, a young woman walked
the woman in black is that stranger whose voice Levitan could not forget.
“My voice is both gentle and languid for you...” She was alone in the autumn
groves, and this loneliness surrounded her with a feeling of sadness and thoughtfulness.
The painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki” was noticed by the audience and received, perhaps, the highest rating possible at that time - acquired by Pavel Tretyakov, the founder of the famous State Tretyakov Gallery, a sensitive lover of landscape painting, who put above all not the “beauty of nature”, but the soul, unity of poetry and truth. Subsequently, Tretyakov no longer let Levitan out of his sight, and it was rare that a year did not acquire new works from him for his collection. The painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki" is one of Tretyakov's pearls!
Konstantin Paustovsky "Isaac Levitan"
BIOGRAPHY of Isaac Levitan:
The fate of Isaac Ilyich Levitan was sad and happy. Sad - because, as often happened with Russian poets and artists, he was given a short life span, and in less than forty years of his life, he experienced the hardships of poverty, homeless orphanhood, national humiliation, and discord with an unfair, abnormal reality. Happy - for if, as L.N. Tolstoy said, the basis of human happiness is the opportunity to “be with nature, see it, talk with it,” then Levitan, like few others, was given the opportunity to comprehend the happiness of “conversation” with nature, closeness to her. He also learned the joy of recognition, understanding of his creative aspirations by his contemporaries, and friendship with the best of them.
The life of Isaac Ilyich Levitan ended prematurely at the very turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; he, as it were, summed up in his work many of the best features of Russian art of the last century.
Levitan wrote about a thousand paintings, sketches, drawings, and sketches in less than a quarter of a century.
The happiness of the artist, who sang his song and managed to talk to the landscape alone, remained with him and was given to people.
Contemporaries left many confessions that it was thanks to Levitan that native nature “appeared to us as something new and at the same time very close... dear and dear.” “The backyard of an ordinary village, a group of bushes by a stream, two barges near the bank of a wide river, or a group of yellowed autumn birches - everything turned under his brush into paintings full of poetic mood and, looking at them, we felt that this is exactly what we have always seen, but somehow they didn’t notice.”
N. Benois recalled that “only with the advent of Levitan’s paintings” did he believe in the beauty of Russian nature, and not in “beauty.” “It turned out that the cold vault of her sky is beautiful, her twilight is beautiful... the scarlet glow of the setting sun, and the brown, spring rivers... all the relationships of her special colors are beautiful... All the lines, even the calmest and simplest, are beautiful.”
The most famous works of Levitan, Isaac Ilyich.
Autumn day. Sokolniki (1879)
Evening on the Volga (1888, Tretyakov Gallery)
Evening. Golden Reach (1889, Tretyakov Gallery)
Golden autumn. Slobodka (1889, Russian Museum)
Birch Grove (1889, Tretyakov Gallery)
After the rain. Plyos (1889, Tretyakov Gallery)
At the pool (1892, Tretyakov Gallery)
Vladimirka (1892, Tretyakov Gallery)
Above Eternal Peace (1894, Tretyakov Gallery). Collective image. Used view of the lake. Ostrovno and view from Krasilnikovaya Hill to Lake Udomlya, Tverskaya Gubernia.
March (1895, Tretyakov Gallery). Mustache type “Gorka” Turchaninova I. N. near the village. Ostrovno. Tver lips
Autumn. Estate. (1894, Omsk Museum). Mustache type "Gorka" of the Turchaninovs near the village. Ostrovno. Tver lips
Spring is big water (1896-1897, Tretyakov Gallery). View of the Syezha River in Tver Province.
Golden Autumn (1895, Tretyakov Gallery). The Syezha River near the us. "Slide". Tver lips
Nenyufary (1895, Tretyakov Gallery). Landscape on the lake Ostrovno u us. "Slide". Tver lips
Autumn landscape with a church (1893-1895, Tretyakov Gallery). Church in the village Ostrovno. Tver lips
Lake Ostrovno (1894-1895, Melikhovo village). Landscape from us. Slide. Tver lips
Autumn landscape with a church (1893-1895, Russian Museum). Church in the village Islandly from us. Ostrovno (Ushakovs). Tver lips
The last rays of the sun (Last days of autumn) (1899, Tretyakov Gallery). Entrance to the village of Petrova Gora. Tver lips
Twilight. Haystacks (1899, Tretyakov Gallery)
Twilight (1900, Tretyakov Gallery)
Lake. Rus. (1899-1900, Russian Museum)
What do other sources write about the painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki"?
Leaves are falling in the garden
Couple spins after couple -
Lonely I wander
Along the leaves in the old alley,
There is new love in the heart,
And I want to answer
Songs to the heart - and again
Carefree happiness to meet.
Why does my soul hurt?
Who is sad, feeling sorry for me?
The wind moans and dusts
Along the birch alley,
Tears oppress my heart,
And they circle in the gloomy garden,
Yellow leaves are flying
With a sad noise!
I.A. Bunin. "Leaves are falling in the garden..."
Painting Autumn day. Sokolniki (1879, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) is evidence of Levitan’s assimilation of the poetic traditions and achievements of Russian and European landscape and the originality of his lyrical gift. Capturing an alley of an old park strewn with fallen leaves, along which an elegant young woman in black walks quietly (Levitan’s college friend Nikolai Chekhov, the writer’s brother, helped him paint it), the artist filled the picture with elegiac and sad feelings of autumn withering and human loneliness. A smoothly curving alley, thin yellowed maples and dark tall coniferous trees framing it, a damp haze of air - everything in the picture “participates” in the creation of a soulful and holistic “musical” figurative structure. The clouds floating across the cloudy sky are wonderfully painted. The painting was noticed by the audience and received, perhaps, the highest possible rating at that time - it was acquired by Pavel Tretyakov, a sensitive lover of landscape painting, who valued above all not “beauty” in it, but the soul, the unity of poetry and truth. Vladimir Petrov.
Autumn rainy, but quiet and thoughtful day. Large pines raised their peaks high into the sky, and next to them on the sides of the alley stand small, recently planted maples in golden autumn attire. The alley goes far into the depths, slightly bending, as if drawing our gaze there. And straight towards us, in the opposite direction, a thoughtful female figure in a dark dress is slowly moving.
Levitan strives to convey the humidity of the air on a stormy autumn day: the distance melts into haze, the air is felt in the sky, and in the bluish tones below, under large trees, and in the blurred outlines of the trunks and crowns of trees. The overall muted color scheme of the painting is based on the combination of the soft dark green of the pine trees with the gray sky, the blue of the tones below them and in contrast with the warm yellow of the maples and their fallen leaves on the path. Airiness, that is, the image of the atmosphere, plays a crucial role in conveying the state and emotional expressiveness of the landscape, its autumn dampness and silence.
Levitan replaces the subject-matter and detailing of his previous landscapes with a broader style of painting. It rather means trees, their trunks, crowns, and maple foliage. The picture is painted with thinly diluted paint, the shapes of objects are given directly by a brush stroke, and not by linear means. This style of painting was a natural desire to convey the general state, so to speak, the “weather” of the landscape, to convey the humidity of the air, which seems to envelop objects and erase their outlines.
The contrast of the enormity of the sky and the height of the pines with the relatively small figure makes her so lonely in this desolation of the park. The image is imbued with dynamics: the path runs into the distance, clouds rush across the sky, the figure moves towards us, the yellow leaves that have just been swept to the edges of the path seem to rustle, and the disheveled tops of the pine trees seem to sway in the sky. A.A. Fedorov-Davydov
An essay based on a painting by student 8A Natalia Kochanova. In his painting Autumn day. Sokolniki Levitan depicted an alley strewn with fallen leaves, along which a young woman in black is walking. In this landscape, Levitan showed all the beauty of Russian autumn. It highlights several main motives. In the painting, the artist combines the shimmer of gold and opal shades of fallen leaves, which turn into the gloomy, dark green colors of pine needles. The gloomy grayish sky contrasts expressively with the road, which contains almost all the variety of shades and colors of the picture. All this creates a brooding, gloomy image. It seems to read the lyrics of Russian poetry. Autumn day. Sokolniki? one of the few paintings by Levitan that contains a deep meaning and image of thoughtfulness and loneliness. And the image of a lonely, sad woman, very expressively combined with the gloomy image of the landscape, enhances the overall impression of the picture. I really liked this picture.
CHEKHOV AND LEVITAN The story of one painting:
In 1879, an unheard-of event occurred at the school on Myasnitskaya: 18-year-old Levitan, the favorite student of the old, picky Savrasov, painted a masterful painting - Autumn Day. Sokolniki. The first to see this painting was his closest friend Nikolai Chekhov.
“I’ll introduce you to my friend someday,” I said to Anton the other day, meaning Levitan. - You should like him. So thin, somewhat sickly-looking, but proud! Ooo! His face is extremely beautiful. The hair is black and curly, and the eyes are so sad and big. His poverty defies description: he spends the night secretly in the school, hiding from the angry guard, or visits acquaintances... And what a talent! The whole school expects a lot from him, unless, of course, he dies of hunger... God knows what he’s always dressed in: a jacket with a patch all over the back, thin leg braces from a crafty market on his feet and, you know, rags only set off his innate artistry. You remind each other in some way... However, you will see for yourself.
So, when I squeezed into Levitan’s closet, he listened with interest to the news about his brother’s arrival, and then began to show his summer work. The success he achieved was impressive. Sketches - one better than the other.
Yes, you worked hard, what’s more, unlike me... The sketches are glowing, you’ve definitely caught the sun. It's not fake. Well, you see, friend, isn't it time for you to move on to the nail stuff?
Levitan smiled mysteriously in response to my words, climbed into a dark corner, rummaged around there and placed a rather large canvas in front of me. It was that same autumn day. Sokolniki, where, in fact, the list of Levitan’s famous creations begins. Who doesn’t remember: an alley in Sokolnichesky Park, tall pines, a stormy sky with clouds, fallen leaves... that’s all! I was silent for a long time. How he managed to get used to the most ordinary landscape with such force and through a deserted alley and a tearful sky to convey the sadness and thoughtfulness of Russian autumn! Witchcraft!
At first I didn’t want to show it... I don’t know if I was able to convey the melancholy feelings of loneliness... In the summer, in Saltykovka, summer residents threw all sorts of offensive words at me, called me a ragamuffin, ordered me not to hang around under the windows... In the evening everyone was having fun, but I didn’t know where to go I mean, I avoided everyone. A woman was singing in the garden. I leaned against the fence and listened. She was probably young, beautiful, how could I approach her and talk to her? It's not for me. I am an outcast... - Levitan fell silent dejectedly.
And it seemed to me that something was missing in his picture...
A woman’s figure, that’s what’s missing! Let her walk alone through the autumn park, slender, attractive, in a long black dress... I managed to convince Levitan, he reluctantly agreed, I drew the woman’s figure.
Painting Autumn day. Sokolniki was shown at the second student exhibition. As usual, all of Moscow came to the vernissage. My brother Anton and I were there (by that time he had become a medical student). And here is Levitan in person, pale and fussy with excitement. He glanced at his landscape, hanging three halls away. Before the Autumn day there were crowds of people all the time. Anton suggested going to the central hall of the exhibition to compare other paintings with Levitan’s canvas, but Isaac was stubborn. We left him, God be with him, let him worry. Soon Savrasov appeared at the exhibition. Shaking his beard and striding so loudly that the floorboards cracked, he walked through the halls like a hurricane.
Disgrace, one! Written with mud, not paint! And it's full of flies! Craft! Academician of painting Savrasov does not understand anything, or he understands a lot, but the artist needs to keep such rubbish under the closet and cover the tubs with cucumbers! You can't drag it into the white light! Shame! And nonsense, nonsense!!!
Clumsy, huge in the shoulders, he moved from hall to hall, accompanied by the hostile glances of offended students, and, moreover, professors, from whose workshops bad things came out. Many in the school did not like Savrasov for his directness and hot temper.
Autumn day. I'll find out. I recognize the alley; wild birds have moved south. Cats scratch at my heart. There are many paintings at the exhibition, but there is only one soul. Here she is, heartfelt. Mmmm... Five! Excuse me, excuse me, with a minus, with two, but where is Isaac?! Why did he slam an unnecessary woman into the landscape?! Where is he?! Where is he?!!!
What is it, Anton? I see that Savrasov has completely charmed you.
Haha, really... Wonderful, wonderful, lively, hot, smart. Well, Isaac, you're in luck. Such a mentor! When I watched The Rooks Arriving, I couldn’t help but think that such a subtle thing could only be written by a remarkable person, a clever one, and I was not mistaken. I'm glad you dragged me to the opening day. Savrasov alone is worth it! How he, how he smashed all sorts of rubbish!
In the evening, when the public had subsided, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov came to the exhibition. He examined the paintings meticulously, without rushing. The students became silent, watching the great collector of the best national paintings. Even famous artists dreamed of selling a painting to his gallery. When Tretyakov approached Autumn Day, Levitan shuddered. But Tretyakov, after briefly glancing at the canvas, moved on. Isaac did not know how to hide his feelings, he nervously walked around the hall. Well, now I’m even feeling better. Now at least everything is clear. Pavel Mikhailovich knows a lot, he understands, he understands...
Mmmm... Poor guy, he’s completely exhausted, it’s a shame, it’s a shame! I put so many feelings into it, but didn’t make an impression...
Yes-ah... Listen, Nikolai, shall we take him to our place today?
Wonderful!
We'll drink tea, Masha and her friends will cheer you up, the landscape painter will step away a little and believe in himself again.
Very good!
Look!
Tretyakov is back again before an autumn day! I think it's biting! The name is Levitan! We must go! Quicker! Isaac! Isaac!
Well, good luck.
Several years have passed since that happy day when Tretyakov bought the first painting by Isaac Ilyich Levitan. The voices of envious people gradually fell silent, and it became obvious that the incident at the student exhibition was not a misunderstanding, that the exceptional talent of the young landscape painter was growing stronger every day. Levitan worked a lot near Moscow, the everyday world appeared on his canvases and cardboards. Familiar to everyone, the roads that densely intertwined the whole of Russia, forest edges, clouds, slopes, slow rivers, but there was something unusually fresh and personal in all this, and it stopped one’s attention. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, with whom the artist had an ever-growing friendship, even came up with an apt word - “Levitanist”. He wrote in letters: “nature here is much more Levitanistic than yours.” The Artist's fame grew, but life was still difficult for him.
In the Tretyakov Gallery you can see many beautiful and talented paintings. Each has its own story of creation, movement and presence in the largest Russian art gallery. One of these mysterious, but no less beautiful paintings is the work of Isaac Ilyich Levitan. “Autumn day. Sokolniki." You will not be able to pass by it without noticing, just as the collector Tretyakov himself failed.
Levitan's painting is dominated by yellow and green tones. They are not distinguished by their brightness and catchiness; on the contrary, they are dull and dark. This fact sets the mood for the whole picture.
In the foreground the artist depicted a path in the park, rushing into the distance along with green spruce trees. The road is located among green and seemingly wet grass, which is giving up its last juice. Along the road with erosion and their yellow foliage are small trees similar to oak or maple. A female figure moves towards the viewer. She is dressed in a black outfit, and her face looks sadly at her feet.
The background shows a gray and massive sky, which only has glimpses of blue in rare places. It smoothly transitions into a display of dark green spruce trees, among which yellowed trees can be seen.
The picture is filled with sadness, melancholy and loneliness, which is reflected in the autumn colors, rainy weather and a lonely figure, except for whom there is no one in Sokolniki Park. The depiction of human figures is not characteristic of I.I. Levitan, he loved to depict only landscapes where his mood was reflected in nature, and in this picture the figure of a woman was depicted by his friend, the brother of the famous writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, who was no less talented in the visual arts.
Looking at this image, a person may feel sadness, but at the same time, peace, which, apparently, is experienced by a woman walking in the park. When I first saw “Autumn Day,” I was reminded of our autumn park, which is very similar to the image of Isaac Levitan. It was for these reasons that Pavel Tretyakov could not pass by this beautiful creation, and bought it for his gallery. This incident gave the Jew Isaac Levitan the opportunity to continue to live and work in Moscow, as well as fame for many centuries. “Autumn day. Sokolniki." - this is a real treasure of Russian fine art, which our generation should appreciate and cherish.
Description of the painting 2
Russian painter Isaac Ilyich Levitan was born into a Jewish family. His father wanted to give his children a good education, so they moved the whole family to Moscow. Isaac Levitan enters the Moscow School of Painting. His parents died early. The brothers and sisters were in dire need. The teacher's friend noticed Levitan's works and took him to his landscape class.
Working on the painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki” the artist began in his most difficult period of life. After the assassination attempt on the Tsar, a decree was issued banning the presence of Jews in Moscow. Nineteen-year-old Levitan was evicted to the Moscow region - Saltykovka. Based on nostalgic memories, he paints a sad landscape. The title of the painting conveys the mood of the master and the location of the event. The small oil on canvas dates back to 1879.
The composition of the picture is tied to a deserted autumn alley. The plot of the picture expresses truthfulness. In front of us is a path going into the distance. To the right and left, small maples are planted in an even row. Their thin trunks look defenseless. The foliage on the maples is yellow, not all has fallen yet. Majestic pine trees darken behind them. The overcast, gloomy sky presses with its mass.
The janitor cleared the path with a broom, leaving traces. The leaves lying along the edges rustle in the wind. The grass is green, withered in autumn. A slender girl in a long black dress approaches us quickly. She holds the hem with one hand to make walking easier. With the other hand she holds back her hair blowing in the wind.
To the right of the girl is a wooden bench, slightly tilted from time to time. The alley is deserted. The wind plays with the tops of the trees. The girl walks confidently. It seems that she quickly wants to pass this place, to hide from the gray melancholy.
The picture looks like an interconnected whole. The observer stands on the alley on the left, as if letting the girl pass. It is known that the girl in the picture appeared later. It was completed by Levitan's friend.
The canvas is filled in an equilibrium, symmetrically. Tall pine trees are contrasted with the small figure of a girl. The work conveys dynamics and movement. A low horizon makes the pines appear more powerful. The sky, path and pine trees connect at one point. An elegant woman complements the picture, giving it a touch of joy.
The artist expressed his mood with faded colors and dark spots on the trees. The picture reeks of melancholy and despondency. The color of nature is similar to the minor scale in music.
The painting has a strong emotional impact. It’s not for nothing that Levitan is called a master of landscape mood.
Option 3
Painting “Autumn day. Sokolniki" is in many ways unique in the work of Isaac Levitan. This canvas, created by a very young, nineteen-year-old artist, immediately received high praise from experts and was acquired by Pavel Tretyakov for his collection; moreover, this is the only canvas by Levitan that depicts a person. At the same time, we see a lyrical landscape very characteristic of the artist’s work, in which the feeling and mood conveyed on the canvas are more important than the details of the subject matter.
The artist invites the viewer to walk along the alley of the park in Sokolniki. The path, slightly bending, goes into the distance. On both sides there are thin young maples. Their foliage has already turned completely yellow, and the wind is tearing off their golden attire. Some of the trees are already bare and retain only sparse golden-brown leaves on their thin black branches. Mighty old pines rise in the depths of the park. With gloomy, stern walls they seem to limit the picturesque space. Their dark green crowns contrast with the bright yellow leaves and green grass in the foreground. The wind carries ragged strands of gray clouds across the gloomy sky. It rustles the leaves and sways the treetops. Under gusts of wind, colorful leaves fall off and lie in heaps on the path.
Loneliness, homelessness, and sadness emanate from the canvas.
The figure of a girl in black on this deserted alley only enhances these feelings. The slender stranger, accelerating her pace, moves straight towards the viewer. Where is the girl hurrying along the alley of the autumn park? Why is she alone? Perhaps her black outfit is mourning, and she recently experienced a bereavement? Maybe with this walk she is trying to drown out the mental pain tormenting her, but the rain and cold wind force her to return? The viewer, looking at the picture, involuntarily asks himself these questions.
It was not for nothing that Levitan was called a painter of moods. And in the film “Autumn Day. Sokolniki” this quality of his talent manifested itself clearly and vividly. The viewer cannot help but feel the piercing, languid feeling of abandonment, melancholy, and mental pain that Levitan was able to convey.
Throughout his life, the artist will paint many more canvases, looking at which, viewers will experience the joy of the arrival of spring, admire the charm of golden autumn, the slowness and majesty of the river flow. But the most important thing is that these paintings will not leave anyone indifferent; they will definitely touch everyone’s heart. This is what makes the work of Isaac Levitan attractive to all connoisseurs of painting.
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Autumn day. Sokolniki - Isaac Ilyich Levitan. 1879. Oil on canvas. 63.5 x 50 cm
Painting “Autumn day. Sokolniki" can be called one of the most important works in the life of Isaac Levitan, because it is from it that the painter’s fame began.
It all started with how I lured the young artist Isaac from his life class. Under the leadership of Savrasov, Levitan's complete transformation took place. The complex, miserable life of the aspiring painter did not turn into accusatory stories, but, on the contrary, transformed Isaac Ilyich into a subtle lyricist, feeling and contemplative. This is exactly what Savrasov demanded of him: “...write, study, but most importantly, feel!” And young Isaac studied...and felt, of course.
Already in 1879, a wonderful painting appeared dedicated to Sokolniki Park on one of the gloomy autumn days. The nineteen-year-old student at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture immediately attracted the attention of the public, and most importantly, Pavel Tretyakov. The keen eye of this outstanding Russian patron of the arts did not miss a single significant work, especially when it showed not only technique, but also poetry of color, plot, truthfulness, and soul, finally. “Autumn day. Sokolniki" met all these parameters, so it is not surprising that he bought the work directly from a student exhibition, which immediately attracted close public attention to its author.
What do we see in the picture? A deserted alley of the park, strewn with yellow fallen leaves. The grass is still green, but the color is not as bright as in summer, but on the contrary, withered like autumn. Young trees grow along the road. They were planted quite recently, which is why they are so thin, with sparse crumbling foliage, and in some places it is completely absent. As a contrast to this young growth, the edges of the picture were “surrounded” by the old trees of the park. Tall, powerful, dark green and slightly gloomy. And above this entire poetic landscape clouds float, gray and gloomy, creating the feeling of a damp, cloudy day.
The central element of the picture is the heroine, but her presence does not “steal” the main role from nature. Rather, it acts as a kind of tuning fork for the mood created by this park and the autumn day. Just as he had nothing to do with bears since his most famous work, Levitan is not the author of this remarkable, lonely figure. The girl in a dark dress walking straight from the canvas towards the viewer was painted by Nikolai Chekhov, a Russian artist and brother of the famous writer Anton Pavlovich.
The general mood of the canvas is sad and nostalgic, and there is an explanation for this. It was during this period that Levitan was subjected to the first eviction from, according to a decree prohibiting the residence of Jews in the city. Living in Saltykovka, Levitan recalled his favorite landscapes, lovingly transferring them to canvas.
A close examination of the painting reveals a broad brushwork style – both the road and the crowns are painted with sweeping strokes. However, taking a couple of steps from the frame, all these wide movements of the brush merge into an iridescent surface, and the blurriness of the palette adds airiness to the landscape.
Another amazing property of the canvas is sound imaging. It seems that you can quite clearly hear the gusty but short movements of the autumn wind, the creaking of tall pines, lonely rustling steps along the path, the rustling of leaves.
Everything in this picture is surprising and atmospheric. The gaze stubbornly clings to individual elements, which are built into a coherent, laconic, but emotional image. And the last detail is a quick look at the name, catchy and capacious. Like Blok’s sacramental “Night. Street. Flashlight. Pharmacy”, Levitan’s is no less exhaustive – “Autumn Day. Sokolniki".
Artist, Isaac Levitan - the history of the painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki"
Our information: Levitan's painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki" was written in 1879 and is located in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Isaac Ilyich Levitan was born on August 18, 1860 (August 30, new style) in the village of Kibarty, near the Verzhbolovo station, Suwalki province, in the family of a railway employee. He painted more than 1000 paintings. Date of death: July 22 (August 4), 1900 (age 39).
Turns out!
“Autumn Day. Sokolniki” is the only landscape by Isaac Levitan where a person is present, and this person was painted not by Levitan but by Nikolai Pavlovich Chekhov (1858-1889), brother of the well-known Russian writer Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. After that, people never appeared on his canvases. They were replaced by forests and pastures, foggy floods and the poor huts of Russia, voiceless and lonely, just as man was voiceless and lonely at that time.
How did Levitan meet Chekhov?
Levitan left the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture without a diploma or means of livelihood. There was no money at all. In April 1885, Isaac Levitan settled not far from Babkin, in the remote village of Maksimovka. The Chekhov family was visiting Babkino on the Kiselyov estate. Levitan met A.P. Chekhov, whose friendship lasted throughout his life. In the mid-1880s, the artist's financial situation improved. However, a hungry childhood, a restless life, and hard work affected his health - his heart disease worsened sharply. A trip to Crimea in 1886 strengthened Levitan's strength. Upon his return from Crimea, Isaac Levitan organizes an exhibition of fifty landscapes.
In 1879, the police evicted Levitan from Moscow to the dacha area of Saltykovka. A royal decree was issued banning Jews from living in the “original Russian capital.” Levitan was eighteen years old at that time. Levitan later recalled the summer in Saltykovka as the most difficult in his life. It was intensely hot. Almost every day the sky was covered with thunderstorms, thunder grumbled, dry weeds rustled from the wind under the windows, but not a drop of rain fell. The twilight was especially oppressive. Lights were being turned on on the balcony of the neighboring dacha. Night butterflies beat in clouds against the lamp glasses. Balls were clattering on the croquet court. The schoolchildren and girls fooled around and quarreled, finishing the game, and then, late in the evening, a woman’s voice sang a sad romance in the garden:
Click on the picture to enlarge the full size of the painting "Autumn day. Sokolniki"
That was the time when the poems of Polonsky, Maykov and Apukhtin were better known than simple Pushkin melodies, and Levitan did not even know that the words of this romance belonged to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
My voice for you is both gentle and languid
The late silence of the dark night is disturbing.
Near my bed there is a sad candle
Lit; my poems, merging and murmuring,
Streams of love flow, flow, full of you.
In the darkness your eyes shine before me,
They smile at me, and I hear sounds:
My friend, my gentle friend... I love... yours... yours!...
A.S. Pushkin.
In the evenings he listened to the singing of a stranger from behind the fence, he also remembered
one romance about how “love wept.”
He wanted to see the woman who sang so loudly and sadly, to see
girls playing croquet and schoolchildren driving with shouts of victory
wooden balls to the railway track itself. He was thirsty
tea from clean glasses on the balcony, touching a slice of lemon with a spoon, waiting a long time,
until a transparent thread of apricot jam drips from the same spoon. To him
I wanted to laugh and fool around, play burners, sing until midnight, run around
on giant steps and listen to the excited whispers of schoolchildren about the writer
Garshina, who wrote the story “Four Days,” which was banned by censorship. He wanted
look into the eyes of a singing woman - the eyes of those singing are always half-closed and full
sad beauty.
But Levitan was poor, almost beggarly. The checkered jacket was completely worn out.
The young man grew out of him. Hands, smeared with oil paint, stuck out of the sleeves,
like a bird's feet. All summer Levitan walked barefoot. Where did you go in such an outfit?
appear in front of cheerful summer residents!
And Levitan was hiding. He took a boat, swam it into the reeds on
at the dacha pond and wrote sketches - no one bothered him in the boat.
Writing sketches in the forest or fields was more dangerous. Here it was possible
bump into the bright umbrella of a dandy reading Albov’s book in the shade of the birches,
or a governess cackling over a brood of children. And no one knew how to despise
Poverty is as offensive as the governess.
Levitan hid from the summer residents, yearned for the night songster and wrote sketches.
He completely forgot that at home, at the School of Painting and Sculpture, Savrasov
predicted Corot's glory for him, and his comrades - the Korovin brothers and Nikolai Chekhov - everyone
once there was a debate over his paintings about the charms of a real Russian landscape.
Corot's future glory was drowned without a trace in resentment for life, for tattered elbows and
worn out soles.
Levitan wrote a lot in the air that summer. This is what Savrasov ordered. Somehow
in the spring, Savrasov came to the workshop on Myasnitskaya drunk, and in his heart beat out
dusty window and hurt my hand.
- What are you writing? - he shouted in a crying voice, wiping his dirty nose
blood on a handkerchief. -Tobacco smoke? Manure? Gray porridge?
Clouds rushed past the broken window, the sun lay in hot spots on
domes, and abundant fluff from dandelions flew - at that time all Moscow
the courtyards were overgrown with dandelions.
“Drive the sun onto the canvas,” Savrasov shouted, and the door was already
the old watchman looked disapprovingly - “Evil spirits.” - Spring
missed the warmth! The snow was melting, cold water was running through the ravines - why not
Did I see this in your sketches? The linden trees were blooming, the rains were as if
water, and silver poured from the sky - where is all this on your canvases? Shame and
nonsense!
From the time of this cruel scolding, Levitan began to work in the air.
At first it was difficult for him to get used to the new sensation of colors. What's in
in smoky rooms it seemed bright and clean, in the air it seemed incomprehensible
it was completely withered and covered with a cloudy coating.
Levitan strove to paint in such a way that the air could be felt in his paintings,
embracing with its transparency every blade of grass, every leaf and haystack. All
all around seemed immersed in something calm, blue and shiny. Levitan
called this something air. But it was not the same air as it was
seems to us. We breathe it, we feel its smell, cold or warmth.
Levitan felt it as a boundless environment of transparent substance, which
gave such a captivating softness to his canvases.
Summer is over. The stranger's voice was heard less and less. Somehow at dusk
Levitan met a young woman at the gate of his house. Her narrow hands turned white
from under black lace. The sleeves of the dress were trimmed with lace. soft cloud
covered the sky. It was raining sparsely. The flowers in the front gardens smelled bitter. On
Lanterns were lit on the railway booms.
The stranger stood at the gate and tried to open a small umbrella, but he
didn't open up. Finally it opened, and the rain rustled on its silk
top. The stranger slowly walked towards the station. Levitan did not see her face - it
was covered with an umbrella. She also did not see Levitan’s face, she only noticed
his bare, dirty feet and raised her umbrella so as not to catch Levitan. IN
in the wrong light he saw a pale face. It seemed familiar to him and
beautiful.
Levitan returned to his closet and lay down. The candle was smoking, the rain was humming,
drunks were crying at the station. Longing for maternal, sisterly, feminine love
entered Levitan's heart from then on and did not leave him until the last days of his life.
That same fall, Levitan wrote “Autumn Day in Sokolniki.” It was
his first painting, where there is a gray and golden autumn, sad, like the one of that time
Russian life, like the life of Levitan himself, breathed from the canvas cautiously
warmth and tugged at the hearts of the audience.
Along the path of Sokolniki Park, through heaps of fallen leaves, a young woman walked
the woman in black is that stranger whose voice Levitan could not forget.
“My voice is both gentle and languid for you...” She was alone in the autumn
groves, and this loneliness surrounded her with a feeling of sadness and thoughtfulness.
The painting “Autumn Day. Sokolniki” was noticed by the audience and received, perhaps, the highest rating possible at that time - acquired by Pavel Tretyakov, the founder of the famous State Tretyakov Gallery, a sensitive lover of landscape painting, who put above all not the “beauty of nature”, but the soul, unity of poetry and truth. Subsequently, Tretyakov no longer let Levitan out of his sight, and it was rare that a year did not acquire new works from him for his collection. The painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki" is one of Tretyakov's pearls!
Konstantin Paustovsky "Isaac Levitan"
BIOGRAPHY of Isaac Levitan:
The fate of Isaac Ilyich Levitan was sad and happy. Sad - because, as often happened with Russian poets and artists, he was given a short life span, and in less than forty years of his life, he experienced the hardships of poverty, homeless orphanhood, national humiliation, and discord with an unfair, abnormal reality. Happy - for if, as L.N. Tolstoy said, the basis of human happiness is the opportunity to “be with nature, see it, talk with it,” then Levitan, like few others, was given the opportunity to comprehend the happiness of “conversation” with nature, closeness to her. He also learned the joy of recognition, understanding of his creative aspirations by his contemporaries, and friendship with the best of them.
The life of Isaac Ilyich Levitan ended prematurely at the very turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; he, as it were, summed up in his work many of the best features of Russian art of the last century.
Levitan wrote about a thousand paintings, sketches, drawings, and sketches in less than a quarter of a century.
The happiness of the artist, who sang his song and managed to talk to the landscape alone, remained with him and was given to people.
Contemporaries left many confessions that it was thanks to Levitan that native nature “appeared to us as something new and at the same time very close... dear and dear.” “The backyard of an ordinary village, a group of bushes by a stream, two barges near the bank of a wide river, or a group of yellowed autumn birches - everything turned under his brush into paintings full of poetic mood and, looking at them, we felt that this is exactly what we have always seen, but somehow they didn’t notice.”
N. Benois recalled that “only with the advent of Levitan’s paintings” did he believe in the beauty of Russian nature, and not in “beauty.” “It turned out that the cold vault of her sky is beautiful, her twilight is beautiful... the scarlet glow of the setting sun, and the brown, spring rivers... all the relationships of her special colors are beautiful... All the lines, even the calmest and simplest, are beautiful.”
The most famous works of Levitan, Isaac Ilyich.
Autumn day. Sokolniki (1879)
Evening on the Volga (1888, Tretyakov Gallery)
Evening. Golden Reach (1889, Tretyakov Gallery)
Golden autumn. Slobodka (1889, Russian Museum)
Birch Grove (1889, Tretyakov Gallery)
After the rain. Plyos (1889, Tretyakov Gallery)
At the pool (1892, Tretyakov Gallery)
Vladimirka (1892, Tretyakov Gallery)
Above Eternal Peace (1894, Tretyakov Gallery). Collective image. Used view of the lake. Ostrovno and view from Krasilnikovaya Hill to Lake Udomlya, Tverskaya Gubernia.
March (1895, Tretyakov Gallery). Mustache type “Gorka” Turchaninova I. N. near the village. Ostrovno. Tver lips
Autumn. Estate. (1894, Omsk Museum). Mustache type "Gorka" of the Turchaninovs near the village. Ostrovno. Tver lips
Spring is big water (1896-1897, Tretyakov Gallery). View of the Syezha River in Tver Province.
Golden Autumn (1895, Tretyakov Gallery). The Syezha River near the us. "Slide". Tver lips
Nenyufary (1895, Tretyakov Gallery). Landscape on the lake Ostrovno u us. "Slide". Tver lips
Autumn landscape with a church (1893-1895, Tretyakov Gallery). Church in the village Ostrovno. Tver lips
Lake Ostrovno (1894-1895, Melikhovo village). Landscape from us. Slide. Tver lips
Autumn landscape with a church (1893-1895, Russian Museum). Church in the village Islandly from us. Ostrovno (Ushakovs). Tver lips
The last rays of the sun (Last days of autumn) (1899, Tretyakov Gallery). Entrance to the village of Petrova Gora. Tver lips
Twilight. Haystacks (1899, Tretyakov Gallery)
Twilight (1900, Tretyakov Gallery)
Lake. Rus. (1899-1900, Russian Museum)
What do other sources write about the painting "Autumn Day. Sokolniki"?
Leaves are falling in the garden
Couple spins after couple -
Lonely I wander
Along the leaves in the old alley,
There is new love in the heart,
And I want to answer
Songs to the heart - and again
Carefree happiness to meet.
Why does my soul hurt?
Who is sad, feeling sorry for me?
The wind moans and dusts
Along the birch alley,
Tears oppress my heart,
And they circle in the gloomy garden,
Yellow leaves are flying
With a sad noise!
I.A. Bunin. "Leaves are falling in the garden..."
Painting Autumn day. Sokolniki (1879, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) is evidence of Levitan’s assimilation of the poetic traditions and achievements of Russian and European landscape and the originality of his lyrical gift. Capturing an alley of an old park strewn with fallen leaves, along which an elegant young woman in black walks quietly (Levitan’s college friend Nikolai Chekhov, the writer’s brother, helped him paint it), the artist filled the picture with elegiac and sad feelings of autumn withering and human loneliness. A smoothly curving alley, thin yellowed maples and dark tall coniferous trees framing it, a damp haze of air - everything in the picture “participates” in the creation of a soulful and holistic “musical” figurative structure. The clouds floating across the cloudy sky are wonderfully painted. The painting was noticed by the audience and received, perhaps, the highest possible rating at that time - it was acquired by Pavel Tretyakov, a sensitive lover of landscape painting, who valued above all not “beauty” in it, but the soul, the unity of poetry and truth. Vladimir Petrov.
Autumn rainy, but quiet and thoughtful day. Large pines raised their peaks high into the sky, and next to them on the sides of the alley stand small, recently planted maples in golden autumn attire. The alley goes far into the depths, slightly bending, as if drawing our gaze there. And straight towards us, in the opposite direction, a thoughtful female figure in a dark dress is slowly moving.
Levitan strives to convey the humidity of the air on a stormy autumn day: the distance melts into haze, the air is felt in the sky, and in the bluish tones below, under large trees, and in the blurred outlines of the trunks and crowns of trees. The overall muted color scheme of the painting is based on the combination of the soft dark green of the pine trees with the gray sky, the blue of the tones below them and in contrast with the warm yellow of the maples and their fallen leaves on the path. Airiness, that is, the image of the atmosphere, plays a crucial role in conveying the state and emotional expressiveness of the landscape, its autumn dampness and silence.
Levitan replaces the subject-matter and detailing of his previous landscapes with a broader style of painting. It rather means trees, their trunks, crowns, and maple foliage. The picture is painted with thinly diluted paint, the shapes of objects are given directly by a brush stroke, and not by linear means. This style of painting was a natural desire to convey the general state, so to speak, the “weather” of the landscape, to convey the humidity of the air, which seems to envelop objects and erase their outlines.
The contrast of the enormity of the sky and the height of the pines with the relatively small figure makes her so lonely in this desolation of the park. The image is imbued with dynamics: the path runs into the distance, clouds rush across the sky, the figure moves towards us, the yellow leaves that have just been swept to the edges of the path seem to rustle, and the disheveled tops of the pine trees seem to sway in the sky. A.A. Fedorov-Davydov
An essay based on a painting by student 8A Natalia Kochanova. In his painting Autumn day. Sokolniki Levitan depicted an alley strewn with fallen leaves, along which a young woman in black is walking. In this landscape, Levitan showed all the beauty of Russian autumn. It highlights several main motives. In the painting, the artist combines the shimmer of gold and opal shades of fallen leaves, which turn into the gloomy, dark green colors of pine needles. The gloomy grayish sky contrasts expressively with the road, which contains almost all the variety of shades and colors of the picture. All this creates a brooding, gloomy image. It seems to read the lyrics of Russian poetry. Autumn day. Sokolniki? one of the few paintings by Levitan that contains a deep meaning and image of thoughtfulness and loneliness. And the image of a lonely, sad woman, very expressively combined with the gloomy image of the landscape, enhances the overall impression of the picture. I really liked this picture.
CHEKHOV AND LEVITAN The story of one painting:
In 1879, an unheard-of event occurred at the school on Myasnitskaya: 18-year-old Levitan, the favorite student of the old, picky Savrasov, painted a masterful painting - Autumn Day. Sokolniki. The first to see this painting was his closest friend Nikolai Chekhov.
“I’ll introduce you to my friend someday,” I said to Anton the other day, meaning Levitan. - You should like him. So thin, somewhat sickly-looking, but proud! Ooo! His face is extremely beautiful. The hair is black and curly, and the eyes are so sad and big. His poverty defies description: he spends the night secretly in the school, hiding from the angry guard, or visits acquaintances... And what a talent! The whole school expects a lot from him, unless, of course, he dies of hunger... God knows what he’s always dressed in: a jacket with a patch all over the back, thin leg braces from a crafty market on his feet and, you know, rags only set off his innate artistry. You remind each other in some way... However, you will see for yourself.
So, when I squeezed into Levitan’s closet, he listened with interest to the news about his brother’s arrival, and then began to show his summer work. The success he achieved was impressive. Sketches - one better than the other.
Yes, you worked hard, what’s more, unlike me... The sketches are glowing, you’ve definitely caught the sun. It's not fake. Well, you see, friend, isn't it time for you to move on to the nail stuff?
Levitan smiled mysteriously in response to my words, climbed into a dark corner, rummaged around there and placed a rather large canvas in front of me. It was that same autumn day. Sokolniki, where, in fact, the list of Levitan’s famous creations begins. Who doesn’t remember: an alley in Sokolnichesky Park, tall pines, a stormy sky with clouds, fallen leaves... that’s all! I was silent for a long time. How he managed to get used to the most ordinary landscape with such force and through a deserted alley and a tearful sky to convey the sadness and thoughtfulness of Russian autumn! Witchcraft!
At first I didn’t want to show it... I don’t know if I was able to convey the melancholy feelings of loneliness... In the summer, in Saltykovka, summer residents threw all sorts of offensive words at me, called me a ragamuffin, ordered me not to hang around under the windows... In the evening everyone was having fun, but I didn’t know where to go I mean, I avoided everyone. A woman was singing in the garden. I leaned against the fence and listened. She was probably young, beautiful, how could I approach her and talk to her? It's not for me. I am an outcast... - Levitan fell silent dejectedly.
And it seemed to me that something was missing in his picture...
A woman’s figure, that’s what’s missing! Let her walk alone through the autumn park, slender, attractive, in a long black dress... I managed to convince Levitan, he reluctantly agreed, I drew the woman’s figure.
Painting Autumn day. Sokolniki was shown at the second student exhibition. As usual, all of Moscow came to the vernissage. My brother Anton and I were there (by that time he had become a medical student). And here is Levitan in person, pale and fussy with excitement. He glanced at his landscape, hanging three halls away. Before the Autumn day there were crowds of people all the time. Anton suggested going to the central hall of the exhibition to compare other paintings with Levitan’s canvas, but Isaac was stubborn. We left him, God be with him, let him worry. Soon Savrasov appeared at the exhibition. Shaking his beard and striding so loudly that the floorboards cracked, he walked through the halls like a hurricane.
Disgrace, one! Written with mud, not paint! And it's full of flies! Craft! Academician of painting Savrasov does not understand anything, or he understands a lot, but the artist needs to keep such rubbish under the closet and cover the tubs with cucumbers! You can't drag it into the white light! Shame! And nonsense, nonsense!!!
Clumsy, huge in the shoulders, he moved from hall to hall, accompanied by the hostile glances of offended students, and, moreover, professors, from whose workshops bad things came out. Many in the school did not like Savrasov for his directness and hot temper.
Autumn day. I'll find out. I recognize the alley; wild birds have moved south. Cats scratch at my heart. There are many paintings at the exhibition, but there is only one soul. Here she is, heartfelt. Mmmm... Five! Excuse me, excuse me, with a minus, with two, but where is Isaac?! Why did he slam an unnecessary woman into the landscape?! Where is he?! Where is he?!!!
What is it, Anton? I see that Savrasov has completely charmed you.
Haha, really... Wonderful, wonderful, lively, hot, smart. Well, Isaac, you're in luck. Such a mentor! When I watched The Rooks Arriving, I couldn’t help but think that such a subtle thing could only be written by a remarkable person, a clever one, and I was not mistaken. I'm glad you dragged me to the opening day. Savrasov alone is worth it! How he, how he smashed all sorts of rubbish!
In the evening, when the public had subsided, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov came to the exhibition. He examined the paintings meticulously, without rushing. The students became silent, watching the great collector of the best national paintings. Even famous artists dreamed of selling a painting to his gallery. When Tretyakov approached Autumn Day, Levitan shuddered. But Tretyakov, after briefly glancing at the canvas, moved on. Isaac did not know how to hide his feelings, he nervously walked around the hall. Well, now I’m even feeling better. Now at least everything is clear. Pavel Mikhailovich knows a lot, he understands, he understands...
Mmmm... Poor guy, he’s completely exhausted, it’s a shame, it’s a shame! I put so many feelings into it, but didn’t make an impression...
Yes-ah... Listen, Nikolai, shall we take him to our place today?
Wonderful!
We'll drink tea, Masha and her friends will cheer you up, the landscape painter will step away a little and believe in himself again.
Very good!
Look!
Tretyakov is back again before an autumn day! I think it's biting! The name is Levitan! We must go! Quicker! Isaac! Isaac!
Well, good luck.
Several years have passed since that happy day when Tretyakov bought the first painting by Isaac Ilyich Levitan. The voices of envious people gradually fell silent, and it became obvious that the incident at the student exhibition was not a misunderstanding, that the exceptional talent of the young landscape painter was growing stronger every day. Levitan worked a lot near Moscow, the everyday world appeared on his canvases and cardboards. Familiar to everyone, the roads that densely intertwined the whole of Russia, forest edges, clouds, slopes, slow rivers, but there was something unusually fresh and personal in all this, and it stopped one’s attention. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, with whom the artist had an ever-growing friendship, even came up with an apt word - “Levitanist”. He wrote in letters: “nature here is much more Levitanistic than yours.” The Artist's fame grew, but life was still difficult for him.
