Nikolai Pavlovich Panafidin was an owner of Kurovo-Pokrovskoye estate visited by Isaac Levitan with his companion Sofya Kuvshinnikova along with Chekhov’s close friend Lika Mizinova in 1891. In the letter to Chekhov Levitan called Korovo-Pokrovskoye estate “an admirable place”.
The portrait of the landlord from Tver is a work peculiar in all aspects as the number of portraits painted by Isaac Levitan is next to nothing. During the time of his studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture he didn’t express much love to the human depiction even though he succeeded in it. ‘But what for? I will never paint portraits. Anatomy! I don’t want to know my bones, my eye structure. Ah, this is impossible…’, this is how he used to talk about the necessity of studying the human anatomy and its depiction in his conversation with Konstantin Korovin. Obviously Levitan painted the portraits: he worked on the commissioned ones, worked as an illustrator for the magazines. However, this genre was chosen by him unwillingly, out of need to make his living.
The portrait of Nikolai Pavlovich stands out of the row. The whole work shines with the warm artist’s attitude to Panafidin. In fact Levitan was treated in Kurovo-Porkovskoye with much care and attention. ‘The whole household used to selflessly care about the artist. Isaac Ilyich returned the favor, ” this is how the artist’s stay at the estate was described by the Soviet writer and art historian Ivan Evdokimov. Levitan actually returned the favor and painted the host in gratitude for his hospitality. Nikolai Panafidin is shown wearing a home dress, his big soft hands calmly rest on his knees. Regardless the fact that Levitan didn’t like to depict the people, it’s the sitter’s face which is painted the most carefully. The wrinkles scatter from his warm brown eyes and leave the feeling of softness and kindness. It is seen especially well with the dark home dress as the background. The clothes and interior are depicted more roughly, they function like a background helping the viewer to concentrate on the main things.
“Portrait of Nikolai Pavlovich Panafidin” is the example of the genre unusual for Levitan. Here the viewer can discover the well-known landscape painter from the new side. We see that the artist could not only skillfully depict the nature, show the atmosphere and the mood of an epoch through the landscape, but also could have a fine appreciation and convey the human soul’s emotion.
The portrait of the landlord from Tver is a work peculiar in all aspects as the number of portraits painted by Isaac Levitan is next to nothing. During the time of his studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture he didn’t express much love to the human depiction even though he succeeded in it. ‘But what for? I will never paint portraits. Anatomy! I don’t want to know my bones, my eye structure. Ah, this is impossible…’, this is how he used to talk about the necessity of studying the human anatomy and its depiction in his conversation with Konstantin Korovin. Obviously Levitan painted the portraits: he worked on the commissioned ones, worked as an illustrator for the magazines. However, this genre was chosen by him unwillingly, out of need to make his living.
The portrait of Nikolai Pavlovich stands out of the row. The whole work shines with the warm artist’s attitude to Panafidin. In fact Levitan was treated in Kurovo-Porkovskoye with much care and attention. ‘The whole household used to selflessly care about the artist. Isaac Ilyich returned the favor, ” this is how the artist’s stay at the estate was described by the Soviet writer and art historian Ivan Evdokimov. Levitan actually returned the favor and painted the host in gratitude for his hospitality. Nikolai Panafidin is shown wearing a home dress, his big soft hands calmly rest on his knees. Regardless the fact that Levitan didn’t like to depict the people, it’s the sitter’s face which is painted the most carefully. The wrinkles scatter from his warm brown eyes and leave the feeling of softness and kindness. It is seen especially well with the dark home dress as the background. The clothes and interior are depicted more roughly, they function like a background helping the viewer to concentrate on the main things.
“Portrait of Nikolai Pavlovich Panafidin” is the example of the genre unusual for Levitan. Here the viewer can discover the well-known landscape painter from the new side. We see that the artist could not only skillfully depict the nature, show the atmosphere and the mood of an epoch through the landscape, but also could have a fine appreciation and convey the human soul’s emotion.
