Isaac Levitan painted At the dacha at dusk in the 1890’s. At the center of the composition, he placed a lamp illuminating the veranda, and merged together the trees on either side as dark blots of color. In this landscape, the artist valued the interplay of light and darkness rather than precision of detail. 

In that period, he often painted twilight. In the summer of 1899, experiencing health problems, he had to move to the Akulovka village, where just in one season he created a series of paintings with the same motive, such as Twilight. Moon, Gloomy and Summer evening. However, even in his evening landscapes Levitan did not fall into a gloomy mood. Researchers note that in the artist’s late period his palette became even brighter, increasingly ‘high key’.

Among the series of similar works was his late-period study Twilight. Stacks which became especially popular. In early 1899, Levitan stopped with writer Anton Chekhov in Yalta. One evening Chekhov was strolling around the room complaining to the artist that he had to live far away from northern countryside. Levitan listened to his friend with sympathy, then fixed a sheet of cardboard in the fireplace niche and started to paint something.

Isaac Levitan was referred to as one of the creators of mood landscape. He was among the first to express his momentary emotions through the state and condition of nature. Church landscapes, each painted in different manner, reflected the artist’s various moods: quiet and joyful tranquility, the feeling of temporality of all things earthly. In his own words, the purpose was not to document but to explain nature through artistic means. Those paintings were drastically different from any trivial copies of natural scenes.

Levitan did not adhere to any particular painting technique. He used thick brushstroke as well as highly thinned paint. He could apply the material in multiple layers, or, on the contrary, leave the ground color uncovered. Levitan was also known to make additions to his paintings years later. This was the case with March: examination in ultraviolet light revealed strokes of paint applied above the finishing layer of varnish.