He was born in August 18, 1860. His father was a railway worker. Isaak had two sisters and a brother. His family was very poor. Isaak and his elder brother Avel were fond of drawing and that is why they entered Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.
Unfortunately in 1875 Isaak`s mother died and two years later his father got ill and soon died, too. The children began to live by themselves without parents. It was very hard, because they were too young to earn money but the boys continued their studying.
Isaak liked to draw landscapes. He got a silver medal for his oil paints studying in 1877.
Alexey Savrasov, the most popular artist of that time, became Isaak`s tutor.
The teachers knew about the situation in the boy`s family and tried to help him. They supported him and often gave him food and money.
In 1879 his work “the View of Simonov Monastery” was displaced in the 10th students` exhibition. The teachers paid much attention to this work. They enlisted the grant from the general-governor of Moscow of V. A. Dolgoruky. He was given a scholarship.
One of the best Levitan`s friends was Anton Chekhov, a very famous Russian writer. They sent many letters to each other. Isaak Levitan became a prototype of many Chekhov`s characters. For example, a painter in Chekhov`s story “The Butterfly”. It described Levintan`s love to S. Kuvshinnikova, who was also an artist.
I think that the best work of Levitan is “March”. It is one of the most popular paintings in Tretyakov Gallery. We can see bright spring morning in the picture. And we can seea brown horse and an old house in the middle of the landscape. But we can feel something strange, which makes us happier. We feel how nature is waking up after a long deep dream. It is the main idea of this picture. Levitan tries to show us the most beautiful moment in the nature`s life, the time when the nature becomes alive again. Isaak
produced this picture in bright colors. He tried to use thin brushes because he wanted to show us the beauty of snow. The snow is not white. It has many shades: yellow, green, red and so on. Most people like this painting and can stand in front of it for many hours admiring its beauty.
Another beautiful canvas of Levitan is “The golden Plyos”. It has peaceful and harmonic coloring. It depicts the scenery of the town Plyos on the Volga River. We can see blue mountains on the background and the forest, which goes down to the river bank. There is a little house with a red roof and a high belfry near the river bank. This picture gives the feeling ofpeace and calmness.
Levitan spent three summers in Plyos and he created two hundred works. And after that many artists went to Plyos. They hoped to find inspiration there and to paint such beautiful pictures as Levitan had created.
I think that “The golden Plyos ” is one of the most exciting and beautiful paintings of Levitan.
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