Today we had two new members at our Sunday meeting, Vasily’s students Levitan and Korovin. Levitan is the one whose sketches Vasily and Natasha liked a lot. Korovin used oil paints (for now, he is the only one), and Levitan painted a watercolor portrait in one sitting — a beauty! And so young, fresh, believing in the future. I could sense a new and good flow from this element.

For his famous picture ‘Christ and the Sinner’ the artist Polenov took his face as a model, and Levitan sat for him. Levitan was irresistible for women, and he himself was extraordinarily amorous. His infatuations ran wild, in front of everyone, with all sorts of nonsense, including shooting. As soon as he saw a woman he was interested in, he dropped everything and rushed after her in pursuit, even if she was leaving Moscow. It was really easy for him to get down on his knees in front of a lady, wherever he met her, whether it was in an alley in the park or in a house in front of people. Some women liked it in him, others, fearing to be compromised, shunned him, though secretly, as far as I know, they had a soft spot for him. One of his advances led to his being challenged to a duel right at the symphony concert, and at intermission very excitedly asked me to be his second. One such affair of his nearly caused him and my brother Anton to quarrel forever.