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Category Archives: Circle of Friends
Sweet Lika
While researching Antosha & Levitasha, I read the letters of Anton Chekhov and Lika Mizinova. I was primarily interested in their relationship with Levitan and in how the three of them played off each other to heighten a romantic rivalry … Continue reading
Photo Portrait of Levitan
The photo portrait of Levitan on the left is one of the most expressive taken of him and has been widely published. However, when and where the photo was taken are often … Continue reading
Alison Anderson’s “The Summer Guest”
Alison Anderson’s novel The Summer Guest is an elegy and a delicate mystery, in which Anton Chekhov appears as a muse and an elusive friend. Katya Kendall, a Russian émigré who runs a failing small press in London, hires Ana … Continue reading
Alexander Lensky and Chekhov’s “The Grasshopper”
Alexander Lensky, an actor and manager of the Maly Theater in Moscow, frequently attended Sophia Kuvshinnikova’s soirees, where he became friends with both Levitan and Chekhov. On several occasions Lensky performed dramatic readings of Chekhov’s stories and one-act plays. In … Continue reading
Posted in Circle of Friends, Sophia Kuvshinnikova
Tagged Alexander Lensky, Anton Chekhov, Isaac Levitan
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Sergei Morozov’s 2,000 Rubles
When Levitan found out in early May 1897 about Chekhov’s coughing up of blood and 15-day stay at a Moscow clinic, he himself was on his way to the brine baths of Bad Nauheim in Germany for treatment of his … Continue reading
Posted in Circle of Friends, Lika Mizinova
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Isaac Levitan, Sergei Morozov
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Maupassant’s “Fort comme la mort”
When Levitan sought out Maria Chekhova’s sympathy for the messy affair of having both Anna Turchaninova and her daughter Varvara fall in love with him in the summer of 1896, she shot back angrily that perhaps he had been reading … Continue reading
Levitan and Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev is most well-known as the impresario of the Ballets Russes based in Paris between 1909 and 1929. So it may come as a surprise to learn that in the late 1890’s he played an influential role in supporting … Continue reading
Posted in Circle of Friends, Impressionism, Uncategorized
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Isaac Levitan, Sergei Diaghilev
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Sophia Kuvshinnikova’s Diary
People had widely divergent opinions of Sophia Kuvshinnikova, who was Levitan’s mistress from sometime in the late 1880s until 1894. Chekhov found her to be a social gadfly and couldn’t forgive her for cuckolding her husband, a hard-working and unassuming … Continue reading
Chekhov’s Restaurants
The Hermitage, located on the corner of Petrovsky Boulevard and Neglinnaya Street, was one of Moscow’s most fashionable restaurants and a favorite among Chekhov’s circle of friends. On February 6, 1895 Maria Chekhova found herself having dinner with the writer … Continue reading
Posted in Circle of Friends, Homes and Museums
Tagged Anton Chekhov, Isaac Levitan, Maria Chekhova
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Abramtsevo
In early June 1885, Levitan left Chekhov’s dacha at Babkino for Savva Mamontov’s estate at Abramtsevo accompanied by the painter Victor Vasnetsov. The railroad baron Mamontov had turned Abramtsevo, located about 40 miles from Moscow, into an artist’s colony. The … Continue reading
Antosha and Levitasha 