Letters and Memories

Isaak Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900) was an outstanding Russian artist, a master of landscape. He is considered the creator of the "mood landscape," that is, an artist who largely projects his own feelings onto nature. In 1891, he joined the Society... of Traveling Art Exhibitions. In 1898, Levitan was awarded the title of academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts. This book includes nearly the complete corpus of letters from Isaak Ilyich Levitan, as well as selected memories of his contemporaries. The artist was acquainted with and corresponded with many prominent representatives of culture at the turn of the century, who shaped its character: A. P. Chekhov, V. D. Polenov, A. N. Benois, S. P. Diaghilev. The publication is complemented by memories of artists about Levitan, in which he appears as a simple sensitive man with his joys and experiences, a person who had the ability to represent the spiritual as universal.