For the first time Isaac Levitan came to the Tver Governorate to make sketches in the spring of 1891, and thereafter he frequently visited this region. He traveled around many lakes including Lake Udomlya. Until the 1980s this sketch was signed by its name. It was created at the Gorka estate, where the Turchaninov family lived. Levitan had a dramatic relationship with them.
On all his journeys the artist was accompanied by his student Sofia Kuvshinnikova. In the summer of 1894, they stayed at the estate on the shore of Lake Ostrovno, which is depicted in the sketch. Soon the famous artist was invited to visit the neighboring Gorka estate, where Anna Turchaninova, the wife of a St. Petersburg official, lived with her two daughters.
Anna Nikolayevna was a woman of the world, she wore lipstick and elegant clothes, with the poise and grace of a St. Petersburg coquette. An affair began between her and Levitan, which dramatically ended the artist’s relationship with Sofia Kuvshinnikova. The girl left and Levitan moved to the Turchaninovs’ estate, where he fell in love with the elder daughter of Anna Nikolayevna, nineteen-year-old Varvara. She became seriously attracted to Isaac Ilyich and even invited him to run away together. A rivalry arose between mother and daughter, which almost ended in tragedy. The double affair drove Levitan off balance, he suffered from bouts of melancholy, and made an attempt to commit suicide.
The writer’s younger brother Mikhail Chekhov wrote about it in his memoirs,
On all his journeys the artist was accompanied by his student Sofia Kuvshinnikova. In the summer of 1894, they stayed at the estate on the shore of Lake Ostrovno, which is depicted in the sketch. Soon the famous artist was invited to visit the neighboring Gorka estate, where Anna Turchaninova, the wife of a St. Petersburg official, lived with her two daughters.
Anna Nikolayevna was a woman of the world, she wore lipstick and elegant clothes, with the poise and grace of a St. Petersburg coquette. An affair began between her and Levitan, which dramatically ended the artist’s relationship with Sofia Kuvshinnikova. The girl left and Levitan moved to the Turchaninovs’ estate, where he fell in love with the elder daughter of Anna Nikolayevna, nineteen-year-old Varvara. She became seriously attracted to Isaac Ilyich and even invited him to run away together. A rivalry arose between mother and daughter, which almost ended in tragedy. The double affair drove Levitan off balance, he suffered from bouts of melancholy, and made an attempt to commit suicide.
The writer’s younger brother Mikhail Chekhov wrote about it in his memoirs,
