On 8 December 2020 the Ovcharenko Gallery announced that it successfully bid 61.2 million rubles ($826,756) at auction to purchase the former house-studio of Isaac Levitan in Moscow. The conditions of the auction (and legislation related to the preservation of objects of cultural heritage) require the Ovcharenko Gallery to spend additional funds to restore and preserve the building, which is currently a fire hazard and in poor condition.
Quoted in TASS, Vladimir Ovcharenko, the gallery’s founder, said, “Art will live in it. Before us is a lot of work to restore the building. It’s a fire danger. But this doesn’t scare us. . . . The spirit of Levitan will help us. In return, we promise to devote ourselves to art and world-class artistic projects.”
In 1889 Sergei Morozov, a wealthy Moscow entrepreneur, gave Levitan the use of the detached building on the grounds of his father’s grand mansion in a fashionable, secluded part of the city. The artist remained there until his death in 1900, living on the ground floor and working in his studio on the second floor.
I have written a chapter titled “Burned Letters: Reconstructing the Chekhov-Levitan Friendship” for the newly published Chekhov’s Letters: Biography, Context, Poetics. The editors also asked me to contribute to a section in the book in which the anthology’s authors describe their favorite Chekhov letter. “A Prescription to Keep Love at Bay” is a short essay on a humorous and intentionally absurd letter Chekhov wrote to Lika Mizinova on 20 June 1891.
Through meticulous scholarship and fine writerly craft, Gregory offers a riveting story of two creative geniuses at work. . . . In addition to this vivid picture of Chekhov’s and Levitan’s potent personal and professional relationship, Gregory’s readers will gain valuable insights into the context in which they worked: the politics and economics of artistic production; the competing movements in the arts at the time; and, memorably, the pervasive and toxic anti-Semitism that affected Levitan at every step of the way — including in Chekhov’s circle. . . . Gregory’s book should be required reading for Chekhov and Levitan scholars, for anyone interested in the history of Russian art and literature, and for general readers.
“There is rich material in this study. Gregory was right to unpick this relationship. From the point of view of Chekhov studies, Levitan is too often
“This meticulously researched and readable book is a chronological account of the contacts, friendship, common pursuits, rivalries, and professional work of Anton Chekhov and Isaac Levitan—two pivotal figures in Russian literature and art. Their work marked the end of positivism which reigned in Russia from the 1860s on—much longer than elsewhere in Europe. Their output was marked by lack of political engagement. Chekhov’s stories did not carry ideological freight. Levitan’s landscapes eschewed narrative content.”
Antosha and Levitasha 