Recent Comments
benshemuel on The Sirens of the Hotel L… lynndheller on The Sirens of the Hotel L… james bleess on Levitan at the Tretyakov … Maria Fitzpatrick on Chekhov Uncensored Serge Gregory on Levitan Proposes
Tag Archives: Isaac Levitan
Levitan’s Studio
On Sunday I visited Levitan’s home and studio off Tryokhsvyatitelny (Three Prelates) Lane. In 1889 Sergei Morozov, a wealthy Moscow entrepreneur, gave Levitan the use of detached building next to his grand mansion located in a fashionable, secluded part of … Continue reading
The Lenin Library
On Saturday I plunged into working at the Russian State Library. Getting into the library is a somewhat elaborate process: first, there is a checkpoint at which you scan your reader card, then you walk up to the checkroom to … Continue reading
State Archive of Literature & Art
After a series of e-mail exchanges, the staff of RGALI (the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art) has let me know that the documents I’ve requested are being set aside for me and will be available when I make … Continue reading
Levitan’s Women
With my departure for Moscow less than two weeks away, I’m finishing up translating all of Levitan’s published letters to ensure that I don’t overlook anything that should be followed up from sources in the Russian State Library or archives. … Continue reading
Levitan Proposes
With a household full of Chekhov siblings and their guests, all spirited, intelligent men and women in their 20s, the atmosphere at Babkino in the summer of 1886 was both lively and emotionally charged. One day Maria Chekhova was walking … Continue reading
The Ridiculous Jew
When Levitan arrived at Babkino at the end of May 1886, the Chekhov clan (Anton, sister Maria, brothers Nikolai and Mikhail, and their mother) was already comfortably settled into their summer routines at the estate. For a month Chekhov had … Continue reading
Levitan and Russian Impressionism
Konstantin Korovin, Levitan’s classmate at the Moscow School of Painting, recalled that their teacher the Itinerant painter Vasily Polenov introduced them to French Impressionism in their landscape class. But Impressionism didn’t make much of an impact on Russian painters in … Continue reading
Was Chekhov an Impressionist?
This is not a question to be answered in a few paragraphs. It is a thread that runs throughout Antosha and Levitasha, especially since Levitan is usually thought of as a Russian Impressionist painter. Associating Chekhov with Impressionism has always … Continue reading
Crocodile! Крокодил!
The very first morning at Babkino, the country estate where he spent the summer of 1885, Chekhov set out to place one of the fish traps he brought from Moscow carefully tied to the back of a cart. As he … Continue reading
What Attracted Chekhov to Levitan?
As a medical student grounded in science and the practical world, Chekhov wasn’t by nature enamored of artists. He had the example, close at hand, of his brother Nikolai who squandered his life through dissipation and indifference to his talent. … Continue reading
Antosha and Levitasha 