“There is so much air and expressiveness in nature that it can hardly be described. Every little twig prays and begs for Levitan to paint it, ” wrote Anton Chekhov, a contemporary and a close friend of the painter Isaac Levitan.

Levitan had a unique talent of noticing and perceiving the beauty of nature. He expressed these feelings in “the landscapes of mood” as he called his paintings. Levitan died when he was only 39 years old, and his life was full of restrictions and persecution associated with his Jewish origin. In spite of that, he managed to create around a thousand paintings that celebrate the nature of Russia.

Isaac Levitan was born into a poor but educated family. He was one of the four children and, according to some sources, Isaac was an adopted child. His father was a foreign language teacher and a private tutor. He also worked as an interpreter, cashier, and ticket inspector at railway stations. At the age of 13, Isaac Levitan enrolled at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture where his older brother was already studying. Soon, their parents died, and the boys slipped into abject poverty. However, the school appreciated talented students and covered the tuition of the Levitan brothers. Initially, Isaac Levitan studied in the life class of Vasily Perov, but he later transferred to the landscape class of Aleksey Savrasov and soon became his favorite student and a successor.

“Savvinskaya Village” from the collection of the Voronezh Art Museum is a study for the landscape “Savvinskaya Village near Zvenigorod” that was painted the same year and is nowadays displayed at the State Tretyakov Gallery. The two paintings represent the artist’s creative search and do not share many common features. “Village Savvinskaya” is filled with light and air, with the monotone color palette emphasizing the harmony of nature. The plowed field in the foreground and the color of the sunset sky indicate that this is an autumn landscape. Isaac Levitan admired the transitional seasons and times of the day because of their subtle mood and rich color palette.