Autumn and Isaac Levitan

Autumn 1892 Isaac Levitan

Russian artist, Isaac Levitan (1860 - 1900) filled his brief life with painting—more than a thousand works of art can be attributed to his 39 short years of life. Levitan was born into a poor but well-educated Jewish family. He attended the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture on scholarship after his parents died and the family became destitute. It was there that he studied under many of the most famous Russian artists of the day. At 17, Levitan’s works were first exhibited publicly to strong reviews. Well-known art patron and philanthropist, Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov became a collector of Levitan’s work, acquiring more than twenty pieces.

Levitan found his muse in the Russian landscape after first painting en plein air with his teacher, Alexei Savrasov. Although he did illustrations for a magazine and painted scenery for the opera, his passion lay in the landscape. His work was considered poetic, i…